CHURCH HISTORY - 1
CHURCH HISTORY by
R. Grant Jones
INDEX
Pre-Christian Background (all dates before christ)
The First Century
The Second Century
The Third Century
The Fourth Century
The Fifth Century
The Sixth Century
The Seventh Century
The Eighth Century
The Ninth Century
The Tenth Century
The Eleventh Century
The Twelfth Century
The Thirteenth Century
The Fourteenth Century
The Fifteenth Century
The Sixteenth Century
The Seventeenth Century
The Eighteenth Century
The Nineteenth Century
The Twentieth Century
SOURCES
1
3
5
10
23
37
74
88
109
122
135
151
160
170
179
190
197
204
219
229
232
245
249
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/7224/Rick/chronindex.htm
INDEX
First Century
Jesus,
Paul,
Nero,
Clement,
Persecutions under
Domitian,
Synod of Jamnia
Clement of Alexandria
Third Century
Nero
and
Second Century
Persecution
under
Trajan,
Hadrian,and Marcus Aurelius;
Ignatius of Antioch,
Symeon,
Marcion,
Quadratus,
Aristides,
Bar-Cocheba,
Justin Martyr,
Aristo of Pella,
Polycarp,
Montanus,
Claudius Apollinaris,
Melito of Sardis,
Tertullian,
Irenaeus,
Victor of Rome,
Polycrates,
Persecution
under
Septimius
Severus, Decius, and Valerian;
Origen,
Callistus,
Hippolytus,
Dionysius,
Cyprian,
Stephen of Rome,
Paul of Samosata,
Diocletian,
the Apostolic Constitutions
Fourth Century (Part I)
The council of Elvira,
Persecution under Diocletian;
Alban,
Lucian of Antioch,
Constantine,
the Edict of Milan,
Alexander of Alexandria,
Arius,
Eusebius of Nicomedia,
First Ecumenical Council (Nicea),
Eusebius of Caesarea,
Athanasius,
Marcellus of Ancyra,
Julius of Rome,
Council of Antioch,
Council of Sardica,
Cyril of Jerusalem
Fourth Century (Part II)
Councils of Sirmium,
Hilary of Poitiers,
Council of Arles,
Council of Milan,
Liberius of Rome,
The “Blasphemy” of Hosius,
Anomoeans,
Pneumatomachi,
Aetius,
Basil of Ancyra,
Rival Councils at Rimini
Seleucia,
Jerome,
Julian the Apostate,
Meletius and Paulinus,
Damasus,
Basil the Great,
Gregory Nazianzus,
Gregory of Nyssa,
Epiphanius,
the Tall Brothers,
and
CHURCH HISTORY - 2
Second
Ecumenical
(Constantinople),
Siricius,
Symeon the Stylite,
Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Council of Carthage,
Augustine of Hippo,
John Chrysostom
Council
Fifth Century
Augustine of Hippo,
John Chrysostom,
the Synod of the Oak,
Alaric Sacks Rome,
John Cassian,
Pelagius,
Cyril of Alexandria,
Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Jerome,
Theodoret,
Celestine,
Nestorius,
The Twelve Anathemas,
Third
Ecumenical
Council
(Ephesus),
Vincent of Lerins,
Leo the Great,
Dioscorus,
Eutyches,
the Robber council,
Fourth
Ecumenical
Council
(Chalcedon),
Attila the Hun,
the end of the Roman Empire in
the West,
Peter the Fuller,
Acacius,
the Henoticon,
Gelasius
Sixth Century
Severus,
Julian of Helicarnassus,
John the Grammarian,
Burgundians renounce Arianism,
Justin,
schism over the Henoticon ends,
Hormisdas,
slaughter of Christians in Yemen,
Boethius,
Dionysios Exiguus,
Justinian,
Benedict,
Council of Orange,
St. Sabbas,
Hagia Sophia,
Pseudo-Dionysius,
Leontius of Jerusalem,
Evagrius,
Agapetus visits Constantinople,
Cassiodorus,
Dionysius Exiguus,
the Condemnation of Origen,
plague,
John Scholasticus,
Vigilius,
defeat of the Gothic kingdom in
Italy,
Fifth
Ecumenical
Council
(Constantinople),
the Suevis renounce Arianism,
Columba of Iona,
Lombards invade Italy,
Avar invasion,
Persian invasion,
Jacob Baradaeus,
Maximus Confessor (birth),
Columbanus,
Visigoths renounce Arianism,
Council of Toledo (and
filioque),
John of Biclar,
Gregory the Great,
Augustine of Canterbury
the
Seventh Century
Augustine of Canterbury,
the Persians conquer Jerusalem
and take the true cross,
Heraclius,
Sergios,
Honorius,
death of Mohammed,
Isidore of Seville,
Sophronius,
last Arian king of the Lombards,
Aidan of Lindisfarne,
the Ekthesis,
John Climacus,
destruction of the library in
Alexandria,
council at Rome (649),
Maximus Confessor,
the Arab conquest,
the Synod of Whitby,
Wilfrid,
Athanasian Creed,
Benedict Biscop,
the Sixth Ecumenical Council
(Constantinople),
Maronites,
Willibrord,
Quinisext Council
Eighth Century
Arab conquest of Spain,
Coelfrith,
Boniface,
Leo III,
Iconoclasm,
John of Damascus,
the Venerable Bede,
the battle of Tours,
the Donation of Constantine,
Empress Irene,
forced conversion of the Saxons,
Seventh
Ecumenical
Council
(Nicea),
the synod of Frankfort
Ninth Century
Charlemagne,
Alcuin,
Theodore Studites,
the council of Aachen,
Nicephorus,
the University of Constantinople,
the Synodicon of Orthodoxy,
Gottschalk of Orbais,
persecution in Spain,
Photius,
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals,
Nicholas I,
Cyril and Methodius,
John Scotus Erigena,
Conversion of Bulgaria,
Ratramnus,
Radbertus,
Hincmar of Reims,
Mount Athos,
the Synod horrenda
Tenth Century
Cluny,
the Bulgarian patriarchate,
King Wencelaus of Bohemia,
the Magyars defeated,
several bad popes,
influence in Denmark,
in Norway,
in Poland,
in Hungary,
the Wendish Revolt,
Adalbert of Prague,
the conversion of Russia,
Olaf Tryggvason,
influence in Sweden
Eleventh Century
King Stephen of Hungary,
persecution under Caliph Hakim,
the filioque first inserted into the
creed in Rome,
the investiture controversy,
the Great Schism,
Michael Cerularius,
Hildebrand,
Henry IV,
another Wendish uprising,
the Norman conquest,
Christianity imposed in Sweden,
Manzikert,
John Italus,
Anselm,
the First Crusade,
the Cistercians
Twelfth Century
the Holy Fire in Jerusalem,
the Templars,
Concordat of Worms,
Otto of Bamburg,
Bernard of Clairvaux,
the Second Crusade,
the Wendish Crusade,
Synod of Blachernae,
Thomas Becket,
massacre in Constantinople,
St. John of Novgorod,
Saladin,
the Third Crusade,
Richard the Lionhearted,
Teutonic Knights,
the Livonian Crusade
Thirteenth Century
the
Fourth
Crusade
sacks
Constantinople,
Stephen Langton,
the Fourth Lateran Council,
Francis of Assisi,
Dominic,
St. Sava,
Synodicon of the Holy Spirit,
Papal Inquisition,
Alexander Nevsky,
CHURCH HISTORY - 3
Mongols,
Thomas Aquinas,
Bonaventure,
council of Lyons,
council of 1285,
Saint Timofey,
Dante,
Duns Scotus
Fourteenth Century
Unum Sanctum,
the Babylonian Captivity of the
papacy,
St. Sergius of Radonezh,
St. Gregory Palamas,
the Black Plague,
Serbian patriarchate,
Council of St. Sophia,
Council of Blachernae,
Schism of the papacy,
battle of Kulikova,
John Wyclif,
conversion of Lithuania
Fifteenth Century
the synod of Piza,
John Huss,
the council of Basel,
council of Constance,
Joan of Arc,
the council of Florence,
the printing press,
fall of Constantinople,
the Judaizer heresy,
Marsilio Ficino,
the first Tsars of Russia,
the Spanish Inquisition,
Archbishop Gennadi,
Abbot Joseph,
Rodrigo Borgia,
the new world
Sixteenth Century
Non-possessors,
Nils Sorsky,
John Reuchlin,
Erasmus,
Martin Luther,
Complutensian Polyglot,
the Aldine Septuagint,
the Diet of Worms,
Henry VIII,
Suleiman's Seige of Vienna,
the first complete English Bible
printed,
Calvin,
the Jesuits,
the Roman Inquisition,
the council of Trent, Mary Tudor,
the Peace of Augsburg,
the Geneva Bible,
the Bishop's Bible,
Ivan the Terrible,
the battle of Lepanto,
the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
Ostrozhsky or Ostrong Bible,
Gregorian Calendar,
Sixtine Septuagint,
Russian Patriarchate,
Brest-Litovsk,
the Edict of Nantes,
Basil of Mangazeya
Seventeenth Century
Douay-Rheims Bible,
the King James Bible,
the Thirty Years War,
Philaret of Moscow,
Josaphat Kuntsevich,
Textus Receptus,
Codex Alexandrinus,
Huguenots,
Cyril Lukaris,
the English Civil War,
Council of Jerusalem,
Council of Jassy,
Peter of Moghila,
Nikon,
Peter the Great,
final Turkish seige of Vienna,
revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
liberation of Hungary,
Glorious Revolution
Eighteenth Century
Unigenitus,
Moscow patriarchate abolished,
Melkites,
Gregorian calendar,
Paissy Velichkovshy,
Jesuits suppressed,
Kosmas the Aetolian,
the Philokalia
Nineteenth Century
Alexis Khomiakov,
Nikita the Albanian,
Seraphim of Sarov,
Kollyvades,
John of Kronstadt,
liberation of Greece from Turkish
rule,
Marquis de Custine,
the encyclicals of the Eastern
Patriarchs,
the Crimean War,
Immaculate Conception,
First Vatican Council,
Westcott and Hort,
The Way of a Pilgrim,
Theophan the Recluse,
Leo XIII
Twentieth Century
Gregorian calendar,
persecution of the Russian Church,
World War II,
Vatican II,
the
embrace
of
peace
Pre-Christian Background (all dates before christ)
5509 This year was the starting point for the apo ktiseos kosmou (AKK) or anno
mundi (AM) chronological system commonly employed by East Roman
(Byzantine) scholars from about the fifth century. In this system, then, 1 A.D.
corresponds to the year of the world 5509/5510. 2001 A.D. is thus 7509/7510,
7509 through 31 August and 7510 thereafter, since the East Roman year began
with 1 September. (A variant system, known as the Alexandrian era and
attributed to the fifth century monk Panodorus, began on August 29, 5493 B.C.)
5199 In the Anno Mundi chronological system attributed to Eusebius and
common in the West before the adoption of the Anno Domini system, this year
was the starting point.
4004 The year of the creation according to Bishop Ussher (1581-1656), an
Anglo-Irish (Protestant) priest.
776 First Olympic games held. (Important for dating purposes only.)
CHURCH HISTORY - 4
753 The year of the founding of Rome. Used in the A.U.C. (Anno Urbis Conditae)
system. 754 A.U.C. = 1 A.D. The Roman year began with the Kalends of March
(1 March).
~537 Return of Jewish exiles under Sheshbazzar, with Zerubabbel (grandson of
Jehoiachin, the last of David's ancestors to enjoy political power) and Jeshua
(Ezra 2.2).
536 Rebuilding of the temple begun (Ezra 3.8).
520 Rebuilding of the temple reinitiated under during Darius' second year (Ezra
4.24).
516 Temple completed in Darius' sixth year (Ezra 6.15).
458 Ezra traveled from Babylon to Jerusalem. He called an assembly - the
people separated themselves from their foreign wives (Ezra 10).
445 Nehemiah travels to Jerusalem as governor and oversees the reconstruction
of the city's wall (Nehemiah 6.15). Ezra read the Law aloud to the people near
the Water Gate (Neh. 8.3).
250 The Septuagint translation of the Torah accomplished in Alexandria, Egypt,
about this time under Ptolemy Philadelphus.
166-142 The Maccabean revolt, led by Mattathias. Judea became independent of
the Seleucids. The Hasmonean dynasty (Mattathias' descendants).
722 The fall of Israel to Shalmanesser V and Sargon II of Assyria.
586 Jerusalem destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's forces after a two year siege.
539 Cyrus (559-530) captured Babylon in October.
Soon thereafter, he
proclaimed that the temple in Jerusalem should be rebuilt. About 50,000 Jews
returned.
522 Darius I (522-486) king of Persia.
520 Haggai and Zechariah began preaching around this year.
486 Reign of Xerxes (486-465), king of Persia.
465 Reign of Artaxerxes (465-424), king of Persia.
445 Artaxerxes' command to rebuild Jerusalem's walls (Neh. 2.4-8). Many begin
Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks from this date (Dan. 9.25).
433 Malachi likely written when Nehemiah briefly returned to Persia during this
year and the people again disregarded the Law.
332 Alexander the Great conquered Palestine.
198 Rule of Palestine transferred from the Ptolemies (Egypt) to the Seleucids
(Syria).
CHURCH HISTORY - 5
175 Antioches Epiphanes (175-164) came to power as Seleucid ruler of Palestine.
He attempted to Hellenize the Jews.
63 Pompey conquered Jerusalem for Rome.
44 Caesar assassinated, 15 March.
43 Octavian (Caesar’s nephew, later known as Augustus), Mark Antony, and
Leupidus rule Rome as a triumvirate.
42 The Senate recognized Julius Caesar as a god.
37 Herod the Great (ruled 37-4? BC) became king of Judea, appointed by the
senate of Rome.
30 In August, Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide in Alexandria after their
defeat by Octavian’s forces. In spite of the fact that Herod had backed Antony,
Octavian confirmed him as king of Judea.
20 Construction began on the Herod’s temple in Jerusalem.
9 The Julian calendar adopted in Asia Minor. There, the civil year began on 23
September, IX Kalendarum Octobris, Augustus’ birthday.
The First Century
14 Augustus died on August 19. On September 17, the Senate in Rome decreed
that Augustus Caesar was one of the gods, and it named Tiberius emperor. (If
Luke 3.1 dates “the reign of Tiberius Caesar” from this year, his fifteenth year
was 28/29 A.D.)
30, 33? Jesus was crucified and resurrected.
39/40 Philo of Alexandria (15/10 BC - 45/50) led an embassy of Jews from
Alexandria to the emperor Caligula (37-41) in Rome. The Jews of Alexandria
were then the subject of a Roman pogrom, which Philo and his companions
hoped to end. Caligula, however, cut Philo off as he spoke. Philo later told his
fellow ambassadors that God would punish Caligula, who was soon assasinated.
CHURCH HISTORY - 6
Philo was a theologian who sought to harmonize Jewish theology with Greek
(largely Platonic) philosophy. Many ideas found in later Christian theology are
present in Philo, though sometimes in a form unacceptable to the Church. Philo
taught that Greek philosophy had been plagiarized from Moses. He believed that
the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint, dating from the third
century BC) was divinely inspired. Philo referred to the Logos (the residence of
the Platonic Ideas) as the first-begotten Son of God - though, in his view, the
Logos was definitely below God, distinct from the Godhead. He interpreted the
theophanies of the Old Testament as appearances of the Logos (as for the
Fathers they were Christophanies). He stressed the allegorical interpretation of
scripture, though this must be balanced.
With the later Eastern mystical
theologians, Philo discussed the incomprehensibility of God in essence, and how
knowledge of God can be attained in an ecstatic state.
In some ways, Philo was more akin to the Gnostics and Manichaeans. For
instance, like Plato, Philo viewed the body as the prison for the soul. This reveals
a distinctly non-Christian view of matter.
41 Jerusalem expanded. New city walls were built, bringing the site of Jesus’
crucifixion within the city.
42James, the brother of John, was beheaded (Acts 12.2).
43 The emperor Claudius (41-54) conquered Britain.
Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch (Acts 11.25-26).
44 Death of Herod Agrippa I, King of Judea and Samaria (Acts 12.23).
45 The church in Antioch sent famine relief to the Christians of Judea by the
hands of Saul and Barnabas (Acts 11.29).
47-49 First missionary journey of Saul and Barnabas (Acts 13-14).
49 According to the Roman historian Suetonius (70-122), Claudius “expelled the
Jews from Rome since they rioted constantly at the instigation of Chrestus.”
49/50 The council of Jerusalem was held (Acts 15). As a result, Gentiles were
not required to be circumcised.
Death of Helena, queen mother of the kingdom of Adiabene, a Jewish state in
northern Mesopotamia. Adiabene was frequently allied with Persia in wars
against Rome.
The emperor Claudius promoted the cult of the Great Mother (Magna Mater) of
the Gods and her consort Attis. The two had been introduced into the Roman
pantheon around 200 B.C.
CHURCH HISTORY - 7
50 Paul’s second missionary journey began, with Silas (Acts 15.40). Paul and
Silas visited Philippi (Acts 16.11-40), meeting Lydia, the seller of purple, and
being rescued from prison, with the consequent conversion of the Philippian jailor
(Acts 16.33); Thessalonica, where there was a riot on their behalf (Acts 17.5);
Boroea, where the Jews willingly examined the Old Testament prophecies of the
Messiah (Acts 17.11); Athens, where Paul preached in the Areopagus (Acts
17.22-31); Corinth, where he met Aquila and Priscilla, refugees because of
Claudius’ expulsion of the Jews from Rome (Acts 18.2); and Ephesus, Caesarea,
and Jerusalem before returning to Antioch (Acts 18.22).
51 Paul wrote the epistles to the Thessalonians, from Corinth.
53 Paul’s epistle to the Galatians written from Antioch (?). Beginning of the third
missionary journey. Paul in Ephesus, 53-55/56. (Acts 19)
55 Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, from Ephesus.
55/56 Paul departed Ephesus (Acts 20.1), visiting Macedonia and Corinth.
Corinthians written from Macedonia.
2
57 Paul wrote Romans from Corinth. Departed Greece (Acts 20.3), and after
passing through Troas (Acts 20.7-12), and preaching to the presbyters of the
church in Ephesus (Acts 20.18-35), came to Jerusalem (Acts 21.17), ending the
third missionary journey.
57-59 Paul imprisoned in Caesarea (Acts 23.33-26.32), under Felix and Festus.
60 Paul arrived at Rome (Acts 28.16).
61/62 Paul wrote the epistles entitled Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians and
Philippians.
62 According to tradition, James the Just, bishop of Jerusalem, was killed in the
temple by an angry mob, apparently struck in the head with a sledgehammer.
Tradition has it Bartholomew was martyred in Kalyana, a city state on the west
coast of India, near modern-day Bombay. Bartholomew was skinned alive and
crucified.
Paul tried and acquitted in Rome.
63-66 Paul traveled to Macedonia, Asia Minor, Crete, and possibly Spain.
Timothy and Titus written.
1
641st Persecution of Christians, under Nero. When Rome burned for six days,
Nero (54-68) blamed the Christians. In 62, Nero had married Poppea Sabina, a
proselyte to Judaism. Of Nero’s persecution, Tacitus wrote, “First Nero had selfacknowledged Christians arrested. Then, on their information, large numbers of
others were condemned. ...Their deaths were made farcical. Dressed in wild
animal’s skins, they were torn to pieces by dogs, or crucified, or made into
torches to be ignited after dark as substitutes for daylight.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 8
A third century legend has it that Simon Magus (Acts 8.9-24) and St. Peter had
confrontations in Rome. Simon, wishing to gain an advantage over Peter and to
impress Claudius with his ability to fly, fell to his death from the top of the
Roman Forum.
64 The church in Alexandria founded by St. Mark, the disciple of Peter.
64 Herod’s temple in Jerusalem completed. See 20 BC and 66.
66Jewish rebellion began and war between the Romans and Jews ensued.
Jerusalem was taken in 70 and destroyed, as was Herod’s temple. Later, in the
second century, Justin Martyr would teach that this destruction was the
judgment of God upon a nation that had rejected its Messiah and failed to
discern that, under the new dispensation, the temple sacrifices were abrogated.
67 Some date the book of Revelation to this year. Most place it toward the end
of Diocletian’s reign (81-96).
Paul’s second trial in Rome. 2 Timothy written.
66 First known public reference to Mithraism in Rome. King Tiridates of Armenia
visited Nero in Rome. To Nero he said, “I have come to thee, my god, to
worship thee as I do Mithras.”
67/68 St. Paul martyred on the road from Rome to Ostia. Beheaded by the
sword. About this same time St. Peter also martyred, crucified upside down.
69 According to tradition, St. Andrew was crucified in Patrae, on the
Peloponnesus peninsula.
69Ignatius became bishop of Antioch in Syria.
69Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, born. Died 155. Irenaeus stated that Polycarp
had known St. John at Ephesus. Polycarp was martyred and was noted for doing
nothing to provoke the authorities, but waiting quietly for them to come arrest
him. Irenaeus wrote, “Polycarp also was not only instructed by the Apostles, and
conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also by Apostles in Asia,
ordained Bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth,
having always taught the things which he had learned from the Apostles, and
which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true.”
70 Near this date, R. Jochanan ben Zaccai founded a rabbinical school in Jamnia
(Palestine).
Matthew and Mark’s gospels were probably written shortly after this year. Luke’s
gospel may have been composed as late as 80.
72 Tradition has it Thomas was stabbed to death by Brahman priests in
Mylapore, India.
79 According to tradition, Jude and Simon were torn apart by a Persian mob after
this date. Simon had joined forces with Jude after a trip to Britain. Jude had
been in Armenia.
CHURCH HISTORY - 9
80 The Coliseum at Rome opened.
90 The Jewish Synod of Jamnia established the Hebrew canon, the modern
Protestant Old Testament. Esther, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and
Ezekiel were nearly left out of the canon, while Sirach was a strong but
unsuccessful contender for inclusion. Rabbis at Jamnia also articulated the
theory that every letter in the Hebrew has a meaning. It is thought by many
that, as a natural consequence of this view of scripture, a standard text was
chosen around this time and non-standard readings were suppressed.
The language of the early church was Greek, and the version of the Old
Testament in use among both Christians and Jews of the diaspora was the
Septuagint. The Septuagint contains books (sometimes termed “the Apocrypha”)
not included in the Jamnian canon. As the Septuagint’s prophecies of the
Messiah frequently were used polemically by Christians, the translation fell out of
favor among the Jews. In time, non-Palestinian Jews accepted the decisions of
Jamnia. New translations of the Old Testament scriptures were made based on
the Jamnian standard text.
90 According to tradition, Philip was crucified upside down (like Peter) in
Hierapolis, Asia Minor.
(Some say that Philip the apostle and Philip the
evangelist were two distinct individuals, and it was Philip the evangelist who was
buried at Hierapolis.)
90 According to Hippolytus, Matthew died a natural death, in Hierees, Persia.
92Clement elected bishop of Rome. Served through 100. He wrote a letter to
the Corinthian congregation which had deposed its old clergy and replaced them
with new men. He asked that they retain the former clergy on the grounds that
these stood in due succession from the apostles. “The Apostles knew through
our Lord Jesus Christ that contentions would arise about the office of the
Episcopate; and for this reason, being endued with perfect foreknowledge, they
appointed those already mentioned, and handed down a succession, so that
when they should depart, other approved men should succeed to their ministry.”
(~97.)
In 2 Clement, which may be a second century document, it is written, “Brethren,
we ought so to think of Jesus Christ as of God ... for if we think meanly of him,
we shall hope only to receive some small things from him.”
93 2nd Persecution of Christians, under Domitian (81-96).
banished to Patmos.
The apostle John
Flavius Josephus (37/38-100) published his Antiquities of the Jews. Book 18
refers to Jesus Christ. Scholars believe the statement was tampered with by
Christians at a later date, because it refers to Christ as divine. Josephus had
been a leader of troops against the Romans in Galilee during the war (66-70).
When captured, he predicted that Vespasian would become emperor, a move
that saved his life. Josephus wrote a history of the war, and, because of the
favoritism he received from the Roman emperors, was detested by his fellow
Jews as a traitor.
CHURCH HISTORY - 10
100 Around this time St. John died at Patmos. (Eusebius, Irenaeus and Clement
of Alexandria agree that John lived into the reign of Trajan, which began in 98.)
The Didache, written in this era, indicates worship was on Sunday: “Assemble
on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the eucharist; but first make
confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one.” Note also
the implication that the communion was regarded as a sacrifice.
100? Around this time the heretic Cerinthus flourished. He taught that the world
was made, not by God himself, but by a lower being. He also claimed that Jesus
was simply the natural son of Joseph and Mary, and that a separate supernatural
being, the Christ, came upon Jesus at his baptism and departed at his crucifixion.
According to the third century bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, “the doctrine he
taught was this: that the kingdom of Christ will be an earthly one.” Cerinthus
“was himself devoted to the pleasures of the body and altogether sensual in his
nature.” In Dionysius’ day, some claimed that Cerinthus wrote the book of
Revelation.
The Second Century
105Justin Martyr born. Died 165.
1073rd Persecution of Christians, under Trajan (98-117). Ignatius of Antioch
martyred in Rome. According to Severus, after Trajan discovered that Christians
were guilty of no great crimes, he forbade any additional cruelty against them.
Ignatius stressed the role of the local bishop as the focus of unity. He claimed
that the bishop was God’s representative on earth. By Ignatius’ time, the
churches of Asia Minor were ruled by monarchial bishops, assisted by presbyters
and deacons. In a letter to the Ephesians, Ignatius wrote, “Be ye subject to the
Bishop and Presbytery ... For even Jesus Christ, our inseparable Life, is the
manifest Will of the Father; as also Bishops, to the uttermost bounds of the
earth, are so by the will of Jesus Christ.” Ignatius is the first writer known to
apply the adjective Catholic to the Church: "Wheresoever the bishop shall
appear, there let the people also be: as where Jesus Christ is, there is the
Catholic Church." (Smyrneans.)
From various letters (written around the year 107):
On the deity of Christ: "...being united and chosen through his true passion,
according to the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ our God." (Ephesians)
"There is one physician, both fleshly and spiritual, made and not made; God
incarnate; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first passible, then
impassible; even Jesus Christ our Lord." (Ephesians.)
"...God himself appearing in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal
life." (Ephesians)
On the identity of the Son and the Logos: "God has manifested himself by Jesus
Christ his Son; who is his eternal word." (Magnesians.)
CHURCH HISTORY - 11
On the Trinity: "Be subject to your bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ
to the Father, according to the flesh: and [as] the Apostles [were subject] both
to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost." (Magnesians.)
On baptism: “For our God Jesus Christ ... was born and baptized, that through
his passion he might purify water, to the washing away of sin.” (Ephesians.)
On the eucharist: “... obeying your bishop and the presbytery with an entire
affection; breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of
immortality; our antidote that we should not die, but live forever in Christ
Jesus..." (Ephesians.)
“I desire the bread of God which is the flesh of Jesus Christ (of the seed of
David), and the drink that I long for is his blood, which is incorruptible love."
(Romans.)
“For there is but one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ; and one cup in the unity of
his blood; one altar...” (Philadelphians.)
On Sunday: “For if we still continue to live according to the Jewish law, we do
confess ourselves not to have received grace. ... no longer observing Sabbaths,
but keeping the Lord’s day in which also our life is sprung up by him...”
(Magnesians.)
Ignatius was martyred under Trajan’s persecution in 107. He warned influential
Christians in Rome not to try to obtain his release from prison. That would
deprive him of suffering in union with the Lord.
In his Ecclesiastical History (Book VI, Chapter 8), Socrates reported that Ignatius
introduced responsive chants into the church in Antioch after a vision of angels
"hymning in alternate chants the Holy Trinity."
We know from the second century account The Martyrdom of Ignatios that
Ignatius' relics were revered, even at that early date. For there it is written,
“only the harder portions of his holy remains were left, which were conveyed to
Antioch and wrapped in linen, as an inestimable treasure left to the holy Church
by the grace which was in the martyr.”
Hegesippus (see 170 below) related that Symeon, son of Clopas, when 120 years
of age, suffered martyrdom under Trajan. Symeon, reportedly, was a son of the
Lord's uncle, and had been bishop after James the Just.
Hegesippus also indicated that it was about this time that the heretics moved
with vigor to corrupt the Church, the last of the apostles having died. He also
listed many of these heretical groups: the Simoniani, Cleobiani, Dorithiani,
Gortheani, Masbothaei, Menandrianists, Marcionites, Carpocratians, Valentinians,
Basilidians, and Saturnalians - many of whom were resisted by second century
apologists such as Irenaeus and Hippolytus.
110Marcion, leader of a heretical sect, born. Died 165. Marcion rejected the Old
Testament God, the creator of this miserable world, and hence he rejected the
Old Testament also. He believed it impossible that Jesus, the redeemer of
mankind, had been born of a woman.
CHURCH HISTORY - 12
Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, lived in this era. He is the source of the
tradition that Mark's gospel was based on Peter's testimony. Papias was a
chiliast. Eusebius of Caesarea was of the opinion that Papias learned his
millennialism from a certain John the presbyter. According to this view, others
(including Irenaeus - see 177 below) understood Papias - incorrectly - to have
gotten his view from the apostle John, and so were convinced there would be a
literal millennium.
112 Pliny the Younger (61/62 - 113), governor of Bithynia, wrote a letter to the
emperor Trajan. He stated that the Christians "are accustomed on a stated day
to meet before daylight, to sing antiphonally a hymn to Christ as to God, and to
bind themselves by a sacrament not to commit any wickedness."
115 Trajan narrowly survived an earthquake that devastated Antioch.
116 Hadrian expelled the Jews from Cyprus after suppressing their revolt, in
which many (traditionally 240,000) Greek inhabitants of the island were
massacred.
1184th Persecution of Christians, under Hadrian (117-138). According to
Severus, Hadrian set up “images of demons” on the temple mount and Golgotha.
Hadrian also set guards to prevent Jews from approaching Jerusalem.
122-7 Building of Hadrian’s wall.
124 The anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, an apology for Christianity written to a
pagan, "my lord Diognetus." The author made it plain that the the Word is not
"some servant of" God's, or "some angel or prince." In fact, the Word was God:
"as God he sent him, as man to men he sent him" who was "the artificer and
constructor" of creation.
The author contrasts the "transient flame" of
martyrdom Christians sometimes experience with the unending torment those
who have been unable to see through "the deceit and error of this world" will
endure.
125 Papyrus 52 was written around this time. It is the oldest extant New
Testament fragment, containing parts of John 18:31-33 and 37-38.
126 Quadratus wrote an apology for the Christian faith, addressed to Hadrian (as
did Aristides around the same time). In his apology, Quadratus mentioned that
some of those healed by Jesus were still living.
127-42 Ptolemy, an astronomer, geographer, and mathematician flourished in
Alexandria. His earth-centered model of the universe held the field until 1542,
when Copernicus supplied a solar-centered model. Ptology's estimate of the
earth's circumference was 30 percent below the actual value.
130 (132?) The Emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem, calling it Aelia Capitolina
(after himself - Aelius Hadrian). He erected a temple to Jupiter there. A special
tax was levied on the Jews to pay for the upkeep of the temple Jupiter
Capitolinus.
CHURCH HISTORY - 13
130 A certain Aquila produced a new, very literal Greek translation of the Old
Testament. Aquila was a disciple of the Rabbi Akiba and a proselyte to Judaism.
The purpose of his translation was to supplant the Septuagint. (Incidentally,
Rabbi Akiba supported Bar-Cocheba, believing that he fulfilled Messianic
prophecies.)
130The Epistle of Barnabaswas written sometime between the fall of Jerusalem
(70) and this date. Known only in a Latin version for most of history, the
complete Greek text was brought to light in 1859 with the discovery of Codex
Sinaiticus. The epistle explains Old Testament events and practices in an
allegorical manner, applying them to Christ and the Church. Barnabas identifies
the one who became incarnate for our salvation with him to whom God said, "Let
us make man in our image."
135 Another Jewish rebellion began, this one led by Bar-Cocheba. According to
Justin, “In the recent Jewish war, Bar-Cocheba ... ordered that only the
Christians should be subjected to dreadful torments, unless they renounced and
blasphemed Jesus Christ.”
136 Second conquest and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. More than
500,000 put to the sword. The emperor Hadrian forbade the Jews to return to
the Jerusalem, and they dispersed over the earth.
In this year the Alexandrian philosopher Valentinus, a baptized Christian, but
Gnostic thinker, moved to Rome. He left the Christian community in 140, when
another was chosen bishop of Rome.
After departing Rome around 160,
Valentinus continued to develop his religious philosophy, reportedly writing The
Gospel of Truth. His system, like other Gnostic views, supposed a fundamental
dualism between good and evil and salvation through gnosis. He was refuted by
Irenaeus and Hippolytus.
Basilides was another Gnostic philosopher from Alexandria. The school he
founded, known as the Basilidians, still existed in Alexandria in the fourth
century. Basilidians are thought to be the first to celebrate Jesus' baptism on
January 6 (or Jan 10), keeping an all-night vigil. Basilides used the term
"Abraxas" (thought to have magical significance) for God.
Still another Gnostic group saw Simon Magus (Acts 8.9-24) as the true God or
Father. God had generated the first thought (Ennoia) to create the angels, who,
in turn, were to create the universe. Through jealousy, the angels imprisoned
Ennoia in human flesh, and she was doomed to transmigrate to a new body upon
the death of the old one. To free her, God had entered creation in the form of
Simon, and he offered salvation to mankind in exchange for their recognition of
his deity.
Mithraism became increasingly popular within the Roman empire, particularly
among soldiers, from around this year. In 307, Diocletian dedicated a temple to
Mithra at Carnuntum on the Danube. Mithra was a sun god, and his faith
emphasized loyalty to the emperor. After the emperors became Christians,
Mithraism faded. Mithra had been the most important Persian god prior to
Zoroaster's time. Mithric sanctuaries were caverns. Only men attended the
ceremonies of this faith, and there was, apparently, no religious hierarchy.
CHURCH HISTORY - 14
140Justin Martyr wrote his Apology to the emperor Antonius Pius (138-61). He
gave a description of the Sunday service:
“On the day called the Feast of the Sun, all who live in towns or in the country
assemble in one place, and the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the
Prophets are read as time permits. Then, when the reader has ended, the
President instructs and encourages the people to practice the truths contained in
the Scripture lections. Thereafter, we all stand up and offer prayers together ...
“Our prayers being ended, we salute one another with a kiss. Then bread, and a
cup of wine mixed with water, are brought to him who presides over the
brethren. He, taking them, offers praise and glory to the Father of all through
the Name of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and giving thanks at great length for
that we have been counted worthy to receive these gifts from God; and when he
finishes the prayers and thanksgivings all the people present cry aloud, Amen.
Amen in the Hebrew tongue means, So be it.
“After the President has given thanks and all the people have said Amen, those
among us who are called deacons give to all present, sharing it among them, the
bread and wine mixed with water over which thanks has been given, and carry it
also to those who are absent. And this food is called eucharist by us, of which it
is not right for any one to partake save only he who believes that the things
taught by us are true, and is washed with the washing that is for the forgiveness
of sins and regeneration, and so lives as Christ commanded us.”
Justin rejected pagan mythology, but respected Greek philosophy. He believed
in free will, and so was critical of the Gnostic doctrine that predestination was
independent of morality. He also believed that the fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecy was a strong proof that Jesus is the Messiah, and so rejected Marcion’s
negative view of the Jewish scriptures. Justin believed in a literal thousand-year
reign of Christ on earth, accepting the canonicity and literal interpretation of the
Apocalypse.
Justin viewed baptism as a bath of repentance and knowledge of God, through
which the Spirit is imparted, a replacement for circumcision, and the doorway to
the remission of sins. The eucharist is the new sacrifice foretold by Malachi. He
interpreted the words “Do this” to mean “offer this.” He associated the eucharist
with Christ’s passion and he believed in the Real Presence: “We do not receive
these as common bread or common drink. But just as our Savior Jesus Christ
was made flesh through the Word of God and had both flesh and blood for our
salvation, so also we have been taught that the food that has been eucharistized
by the word of prayer from Him (that food which by process of assimilation
nourishes our flesh and blood) is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus.”
Justin regarded the Septuagint as the only reliable Old Testament text. He
viewed Mary as the antithesis of Eve. Our fall was through a disobedient virgin,
but our salvation is through an obedient one.
140 Aristo of Pella wrote his Disputation of Papiscus and Jason, a dialogue
between a Jew and a Christian regarding the truth of the Christian faith. This
work is now known only through second-hand references.
CHURCH HISTORY - 15
155Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome and found the Romans did not
celebrate Easter as it was done in the East (see year 190). This was when
Anicetus was bishop of Rome.
157 Polycarp burned at the stake in Smyrna. A year later, the anniversary of
Polycarp’s martyrdom was celebrated. The first “saint’s day” thus began.
157Montanus, leader of a heretical sect, flourished.
He was a Phrygian.
Together with two women, Prisca and Maximilla, he entered ecstatic states and
spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit. They were chiliasts, believing that the new
Jerusalem would land in Phrygia. They taught that disagreement with their
ecstatic utterances was blasphemy against the Spirit.
160 By this year, the grave of Peter was marked by a shrine.
The annual celebration of Easter may have began in Rome around this year (see
190). It had been celebrated in Asia Minor much earlier.
Tertullian born. Died 230.
Claudius Apollinaris bishop of Hierapolis (160-180). Apollinaris related that an
army of the Emperor Antoninus (Marcus Aurelius) (161-180) was sent rain on
account of the prayers of Christians, while the enemy force was struck by
lightning bolts. Apollinaris also remarked that the Lord was crucified on the
Passover, the 14th of Nisan, not on the day after. The Last Supper, he stated,
occurred before the Passover, as John relates (John 13.1).
During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a certain Alexander the Paphlagonian
generated a mystery spectacle involving a holy serpent named Glycon.
165 Death of Justin Martyr.
Tatian. Sometime before Justin’s death, a native of Mesopotamia (called an
Assyrian) named Tatian converted to Christianity after an investigation into
philosophy. His conversion may have occurred in Rome, where he met Justin.
Tatian authored a harmony of the gospels, known as the Diatessaron, and an
apologetic Address to the Greeks. After Justin’s death, Tatian became enamored
of an ascetic Gnostic sect known as the Encratites, or the “self-controlled,” which
had apparently arisen about the year 166. Tatian moved to Antioch and
attracted disciples to this heresy until his death in 172.
167 According to the Venerable Bede, the bishop of Rome, Eleutherus, received a
request for baptism from a British king in this year.
168 Theophilus (died 181 or 188) became bishop of Antioch. Though reportedly
the author of commentaries on the gospels and the book of Proverbs, his sole
surviving work is apologetic in character, addressed to his pagan friend
Autolycus. (Theophilus also seems to have written a chronology of the world,
based on Biblical dates. The historian John Malalas (d. 538) cited a Theophilus,
whose identity is otherwise uncertain, as a source in his historical writings.)
CHURCH HISTORY - 16
170 Melito of Sardis (died 177, under Aurelius' persecution) traveled to Palestine
where he obtained a list of books in the Hebrew Old Testament. His list omits
Esther.
That Melito believed in the deity of Christ is evident. He wrote, "...our Lord Jesus
Christ ... is perfect reason, the Word of God; He who was begotten before the
Light; He is creator together with the Father; He who is the fashioner of man; He
who is all in all; ...in the Father, the Son; in God, God."
“For there is no need, to persons of intelligence, to attempt to prove, from the
deeds of Christ subsequent to his baptism, that his soul and his body, his human
nature like ours, were real, and no phantom of the imagination. For the deeds
done by Christ after his baptism, and especially his miracles, gave indication and
assurance to the world of the Deity hidden in his flesh. For, being at once both
God and perfect man likewise, he gave us sure indications of his two natures: of
his Deity, by his miracles during the three years that elapsed after his baptism;
of his humanity, during the thirty similar periods that preceded his baptism, in
which, by reason of his low estate as regards the flesh, he concealed the signs of
his Deity, although he was the true God existing before all ages.”
Melito derived the word Pascha from the Greek paschein, to suffer. In his Peri
Pascha, which dates to approximately 165, he wrote, “He came on earth from
heaven for suffering man, becoming incarnate in a virgin’s womb from which he
came forth as man; he took on himself the sufferings of suffering man through a
body capable of suffering, and put an end to the sufferings of the flesh, and
through his spirit incapable of death he became the death of death which is
destructive of man ... this is he who in the virgin was made incarnate, on the
cross was suspended, in the earth was buried, from the dead was resurrected, to
the heights of heaven lifted up.”
170Hegesippus flourished around this time. He was an early chronicler of Church
history.
170Dionysius of Corinth wrote, “it was the custom of the Romans ... from the
beginning ... to assist all the brotherhood in various ways and send contributions
to churches in every city, thus relieving the want of the needy.” Dionysius
mentioned the martyrdom of both Peter and Paul in Rome.
~175 In the latter half of the second century, the Epistula Apostolorum was
written. The work depicts Jesus commanding his followers to observe the Pascha
“until I return from the Father with my wounds.” The Pascha in view appears to
have been observed on 14/15 Nisan.
1775th Persecution of the church, under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180).
About this time also Gnostic heretics disturbed the churches of the Rhone valley.
These churches were largely Greek, having close connections with the churches
of Asia Minor. The Gnostics provoked much of the work of Irenaeus of Lyons.
CHURCH HISTORY - 17
177Irenaeus, a pupil of Polycarp, elected bishop of Lyons (born in 130). Died
200. Believed that the plan of the new covenant is the “recapitulation” of the
original creation: by Adam’s sin, the likeness to God had been lost, but the
image had been retained. By faith in Christ, man may recover the lost likeness.
For him, the history of salvation is a progressive education in which God has
gradually brought man forward in a long process by the gospel. Irenaeus, like
Justin Martyr, believed that Christ will reign on earth for a thousand years, and
he vehemently protested against attempts to allegorize away the millenarian
proof texts. Irenaeus argued against the Gnostic doctrine of a secret teaching by
appealing to apostolic succession -- if there had been such a teaching, the
apostles would have passed it on to their successors. The apostles, he claimed,
taught the Rule of Faith (very similar to our Apostles’ Creed).
Irenaeus wrote, “The tradition of the Apostles is manifest throughout the whole
world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were, by the Apostles,
ordained bishops in the churches, and the succession of those men to our own
time. If the Apostles had known hidden mysteries, they would have delivered
them, especially to those to whom they were committing the churches
themselves. For they were desirous those men should be very perfect and
blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving behind as their successors,
delivering up their own place of government to these men.”
Irenaeus viewed baptism as the seal of eternal life and new birth unto God,
through which the Holy Spirit is imparted. He wrote, “... he came to save all
persons himself; all, I mean, who by him are regenerated unto God: infants and
little ones and children and youths and older persons.” (Since infants are said to
be born again, this seems to be a reference to infant baptism.) For Irenaeus the
eucharist was the “new oblation of the new covenant” offered to God throughout
the world. Irenaeus associated the eucharist not closely with Christ’s passion, as
Justin did, but sees it primarily as an offering of first fruits. But Irenaeus did
identify the bread and wine with Christ’s body and blood.
Irenaeus held that Mary was not sinless.
He is the earliest source for the
church’s observance of Pentecost as a special feast day.
With regard to the deity of Christ, Irenaeus wrote, “The sacred books
acknowledge with regard to Christ, that as He is the Son of man, so is the same
Being not a [mere] man; and as He is flesh, so is He also spirit, and the Word of
God, and God.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 18
“But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the
successions of all the Churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever
manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and
wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the
successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all,
founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and
Paul, that Church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us
after having been announced to men by the Apostles. For with this Church,
because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in
the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the
Apostolic tradition.” St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies (3,3,2). The last line in that
passage may also be translated, "For to this Church, on account of more potent
principality, it is necessary that every Church (that is, those who are on every
side faithful) resort; in which Church ever, by those who are on every side, has
been preserved that tradition which is from the apostles." This expresses the
idea that the church of Rome is faithful because of the faithful everywhere.
He does state that Peter had been in Rome, and that Linus had been the first
bishop there, having been jointly ordained by Peter and Paul.
Irenaeus mentioned a group of Gnostics who honored images, giving the
impression that the use of images was relatively unknown in the Church in his
location and time. He affirmed that the charismata were still active in his day,
noting that demons were expelled, the future predicted, and the dead raised by
members of the Church. In refuting one of the Gnostics' peculiar interpretations
of scripture, Irenaeus related the tradition he had received from those who had
known John (and other apostles) to the effect that Jesus had been nearly fifty
years old when he was crucified.
179 Conversion of Bardesanes (154-222) to Christianity. Unfortunately, he was
influenced by Gnostic thought, denying the immediate creation by God of the
universe and Satan, introducing a series of intermediate beings instead.
Bardesanes thus became a leading figure in Syrian Gnosticism.
Mandaeanism originated sometime during the first three centuries in the Middle
East. In this religion, salvation is of the soul alone, through esoteric knowledge.
There is a system of intervening spiritual beings (Archons) between the soul and
God. In these points, Mandaeanism is similar to Gnosticism. Unlike many
Gnostic systems, however, sexual promiscuity is forbidden and marriage is
encouraged. Mandaeans consider Jesus a false messiah, but they have great
respect for John the Baptist.
180 Before this time, Christianity was established in North Africa, as witnessed
by the Latin Acts of the Martyrs of Scillium, written around 180.
Rhodon, about whom little is known, wrote works against the Cataphrygians and
the Marcionites.
Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea, attested that the churches in Palestine and
Alexandria observed Easter on a Sunday - which contrasts with the churches in
Asia Minor (see 190 below).
CHURCH HISTORY - 19
185Tertullian (160-230) converted to Christianity. Became a Montanist in ~200.
He was the first Christian theologian to write in Latin. In contrast to Irenaeus
and Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian held that Mary’s womb was opened at
Christ’s birth, believing this to have been prophesied in Exodus 13:2. He
assumed that Mary had normal sexual relations with Joseph and that Jesus’
brothers were the children of her union with Joseph.
Tertullian regarded the 2nd commandment’s provision against graven images as
binding upon Christians. However, he does admit that some images are innocent
and are not idols - such as the bronze serpent, which was symbolic of the cross
(On Idolatry).
In a letter written sometime between 200 and 206, Tertullian argued against
infant baptism. His reason was not that infant baptism is not of apostolic origin.
Instead, he seems to hold that there is no forgiveness of sins committed after
baptism. He argued that the unmarried should put off baptism until they marry;
that single persons should delay baptism until old age; that widows and
widowers should wait until they remarry or are confirmed in continence.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia article on baptism: “The threefold immersion is
unquestionably very ancient in the Church and apparently of Apostolic origin. It
is mentioned by Tertullian (De cor. milit., iii), St. Basil (De Sp. S., xxvii), St.
Jerome (Dial. Contra Luc., viii), and many other early writers.”
Tertullian believed in the literal millennium, lasting for a literal 1000 years,
centered in the new Jerusalem which will come down from heaven.
He used the phrase “Vicar of Christ,” but his reference is to the Holy Spirit (The
Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 28). In reference to the Matthew 16,
Tertullian wrote (op. cit., Chapter 22), “Was anything withheld from the
knowledge of Peter, who is called ‘the rock on which the church should be built,’
who also obtained ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven,’ with the power of
‘loosing and binding in heaven and on earth?’ Was anything, again, concealed
from John, the Lord's most beloved disciple, who used to lean on His breast to
whom alone the Lord pointed Judas out as the traitor, whom He commended to
Mary as a son in His own stead?” Notice that Tertullian made no distinction
between Peter and John in the degree of their knowledge. He also makes no
claim for Peter’s supremacy.
Tertullian taught that the Son derived his substance from the Father and that the
Spirit proceeded from the Father through the Son. In a work against a certain
Praxeas, who taught that the Father, Son and Spirit were one person, he
described the Trinity as being "susceptible of number without division." In the
same work, Tertullian indicated that the bishop of Rome (Victor) initially
"acknowledged the prophetic gifts of Montanus, Prisca and Maximilla" but was
persuaded by Praxeas to follow the example of the former bishop of Rome.
Praxeas himself was persuaded to renounce his patripassionism, but he soon
returned to teaching that error.
In The Prescription Against Heretics, Tertullian warned against arguing Scripture
with heretics, because they will never be convinced.
The guide to true
interpretation, and confidence in doctrine, is to be found in the transmission of
the apostolic tradition through the Church.
CHURCH HISTORY - 20
In a work sometimes attributed to Tertullian, the author identified March 25 as
the date of Jesus’ crucifixion, stating, in agreement with John’s chronology, that
the date was also 14 Nisan.
In his On the Apparel of Women, Tertullian argued for the inclusion of the Book
of Enoch (1 Enoch) in the canon.
185Maximus, bishop of Jerusalem (185-196). He wrote a work on the origin of
evil.
189 Victor became bishop of Rome. Died 199. During Victor’s tenure, the
Monarchian controversy arose as a revolt against the Logos theology of Justin
Martyr. Justin had taught that the Logos was “another God,” meaning “another
in number, not in will.” Christians had argued against Gnostics that there was
only one first principle, the creator God, a single monarchia, but the Logos
theology prejudiced this argument. To circumvent Justin’s incipient ditheism,
Sabellius propagated the view that the Father and the Son are one and the
same, the distinction being in name only. Sabellius’ doctrine is often called
modalism, because the Father, Son and Spirit are modes of the same being. In
the West, it was called Patripassianism, meaning that the Father suffers.
190 Victor demanded conformity from the churches of the East in the date of
Easter. He claimed his method for setting the date for Easter was established by
Peter and Paul. The churches of Asia Minor regarded this as autocratic and took
offense. Polycrates (130-196), bishop of Ephesus, wrote to Victor, supporting his
Paschal practice by citing the example of the evangelist Philip, the apostle John,
the martyred bishop Polycarp, and others. He added, “I, therefore, brethren,
who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren
throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not
affrightened by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said, ‘We ought
to obey God rather than man.’ ”
Irenaeus of Lyons also wrote to Victor: “And those presbyters who governed the
church before Soter, and over which you now preside, I mean Anicetus [(15566)] and Pius [(140-55)], Hyginus [(136-40)] and Telesphorus [(125-36)] and
Xystus [(115-25)], neither did themselves observe, nor did they permit those
after them to observe it. ...Neither at any time did they cast off any for the sake
of the form. But those very presbyters before thee who did not observe it, sent
the eucharist to those of the churches who did. And when the blessed Polycarp
went to Rome, in the time of Anicetus, and they had a little difference among
themselves likewise respecting other matters, they immediately were reconciled,
not disputing much with one another on this head. For neither could Anicetus
persuade Polycarp not to observe it, because he had always observed it with
John the disciple of our Lord ... and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to
observe, who said he was bound to observe the practice of the presbyters before
him.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 21
The distinction between the churches that did ‘observe it’ and those that didn’t
may refer to the practice of observing Easter on a Sunday: the churches in Asia
Minor observed the 14th of Nissan as Easter, regardless of the day of the week
that fell on. There is disagreement over the precise meaning of Irenaeus’ words
“to observe”. In one interpretation of the events (proposed by Karl Holl in
1927), Pascha was not observed in any form or on any date in Rome in Anicetus’
time (circa 155), but was introduced in about 165 when Soter was bishop.
190 About this time, of Clement of Alexandria became head of the catechetical
school in Alexandria, and served there through 203. Born about 150. Died
about 215. Clement was a lay theologian. The central principle of his theology
was the doctrine of creation. Because creation was good, God has implanted the
seeds of truth in all creatures. Hence, there was much to learn from the Greek
philosophers.
Clement's Stromata describe the attributes of the Christian
gnostic. He held that marriage is not an inferior spiritual state to celibacy, and
he rejected demands that all Christians be teetotalers or vegetarians. In his
view, the church is a school where the lapsed can be restored. Clement saw the
spiritual life as a never-ending process -- education does not end with death, and
all will need to be purified before entering God’s presence. Clement rejected the
millennial interpretations of Irenaeus and Justin. (According to Gwynne’s The
Christian Year, Clement mentioned that Christ’s birthday was observed in his
time. This observance may have been on January 6, in distinction to the
December 25 observance begun in Rome in the fourth century.)
192 In a work from around this year, Tertullian mentioned the observance of the
Easter vigil.
198 Zephyrinus became bishop of Rome. Died 217. The Monarchian controversy
continued. Hippolytus opposed Sabellius with the doctrine that the Father and
Son are two distinct persons. Callistus, an emancipated slave and archdeacon of
the church, had been exiled to the mines of Sardinia sometime between 188 and
193. The emperor Commodus (d. 193), at the urging of his Christian concubine
Marcia, ordered a general release for all Christians exiled to Sardinia. So
Callistus was allowed to return.
(In those days, the Church considered
concubinage marriage as long as the Christian concubine acted as if it were.)
Apparently at Callistus’ urging, Zephyrinus attempted to steer a middle course
between the Monarchians and the adherents of the Logos theology. He stated, “I
know one God, Christ Jesus, and beside him I know no other who was begotten
and passible” and “the Father did not die but the Son.”
Hippolytus is said to be the last Roman theologian to write in Greek. The
transformation of the West from Greek to Latin was complete by the time of
Constantine. (But see below, year 366.)
In his The Apostolic Tradition, written sometime between 215 and 217, we read,
“And first baptize the little ones; and if they can speak for themselves, they shall
do so; if not, their parents or other relatives shall speak for them. Then baptize
the men, and last of all the women; they must first loosen their hair and put
aside any gold or silver ornaments that they are wearing: let no one take any
alien thing down to the water with them.” This clearly indicates the practice of
the time at Rome to have been infant baptism, and the mode was probably
immersion.
CHURCH HISTORY - 22
Hippolytus also gave an account of the preparation of candidates for baptism
before Easter. These preparations were the root of the later Lenten fast.
Baptism itself was by triple immersion: one immersion for the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, following a confession of each. Confirmation involved both
the laying on of hands by the bishop (while he invoked the Holy Spirit to fill those
just baptized) and the application of oil (chrismation).
The Apostolic Tradition shows the influence of Judaistic prayer forms on early
Christian worship. It was probably written in opposition to Zephyrinus’ lax
regard for traditional ceremony. Hippolytus comments somewhere that his
archenemy Callistus and his followers, at least, held to the apostolic tradition.
That the eucharist was not understood to be mere symbolism is seen from the
command to keep it safe from animals and the unbaptized. “For it is the body of
Christ to be eaten by them that believe and not to be thought lightly of.”
The Apostolic Tradition also contains apparent references to the sign of the
cross: “when tempted always reverently seal thy forehead. For the sign of the
passion is displayed and made manifest against the devil if thou makest it in
faith.” And it states that the bishop was “chosen by all the people.”
Hippolytus defended millenarianism. In the face of the growing reaction against
this doctrine at Rome, which may have been led by the priest Caius, Hippolytus
explained that the thousand years of Revelation 20.2-5 are not to be taken
literally, but are symbolic of the splendor of the kingdom.
Caius is the source for the following information about Cerinthus’ (see 100?
above) millennialism: “By means of revelations which he pretends were written
by a great apostle, [Cerinthus] brings before use marvelous things which he
falsely claims were shown him by angels; and he says that after the resurrection
the kingdom of Christ will be set up on earth, and that the flesh dwelling in
Jerusalem will again be subject to desires and pleasures. And, being the enemy
of the Scriptures of God, he asserts, with the purpose of deceiving men, that
there is to be a period of a thousand years for marriage festivals.” This passage
has been interpreted to imply that Caius believed Cerinthus was the author of
the book of Revelation.
Caius also engaged in a dispute with the Montanist Proclus. In that debate,
Caius mentioned the existence of memorial chapels to Peter and Paul in Rome.
In a commentary on Daniel, Hippolytus stated that Jesus was born on
Wednesday, December 25, in the 42nd year of the Emperor Augustus (2 BC?).
He identified March 25 as the date of Christ’s crucifixion, believing this to have
occurred on Nisan 14, following John’s chronology.
Hippolytus is also the first author to state that Peter had been bishop of Rome.
His lost Chronicon is quoted to that effect by Eusebius.
CHURCH HISTORY - 23
200 The Muratorian Canon, a Latin list of the books of the New Testament, was
drawn up in this period. The beginning of the manuscript is missing, and the first
book listed as canonical is Luke, followed by John, Acts, Corinthians (two books),
Galatians, Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians (two
books), Philemon, Titus, and Timothy (two books), Jude, two epistles of John,
Wisdom of Solomon, Revelation, and the Apocalypse of Peter. Hebrews and the
two epistles of Peter are absent. The Shepherd of Hermas is mentioned as being
appropriate for private reading. See also 1740 below.
200Serapion (died ~211), eighth bishop of Antioch, wrote that the Gospel of
Peter should be rejected on the grounds that it had not been "handed down to
us."
200? Papyrus 66: 2nd Bodmer, John, 1956, "Alexandrian/Western" text-types:
Jn 1:1-6:11, 6:35-14:26, 29-30; 15:2-26; 16:2-4, 6-7; 16:10-20:20, 22-23;
20:25-21:9
P46: 2nd Chester Beatty, "Alexandrian" text-type: Rom 5:17-6:3; 6:5-14; 8:1525; 8:27-35; 8:37-9:32; 10:1-11:22; 11:24-33; 11:35-15:9; 15:11-16:27;
1Cor 1:1-9:2; 9:4-14:14; 14:16-15:15; 15:17-16:22; 2Cor 1:1-11:10; 11:1221; 11:23-13:13; Gal 1:1-8; 1:10-2:9; 2:12-21; 3:2-29; 4:2-18; 4:20-5:17;
5:20-6:8; 6:10-18; Eph 1:1-2:7; 2:10-5:6; 5:8-6:6; 6:8-18; 6:20-24; Phil 1:1;
1:5-15; 1:17-28; 1:30-2:12; 2:14-27; 2:29-3:8; 3:10-21; 4:2-12; 4:14-23; Col
1:1-2; 1:5-13; 1:16-24; 1:27-2:19; 2:23-3:11; 3:13-24; 4:3-12; 4:16-18; 1Th
1:1; 1:9-2:3; 5:5-9; 5:23-28. Heb 1:1-9:16; 9:18-10:20; 10:22-30; 10:3213:25. P46 is notorious for scribal errors, having the highest percentage on
record.
P32: J. Rylands Library: Titus 1:11-15; 2:3-8
P64 (+67): Mt 3:9,15; 5:20-22; 5:25-28; 26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31-33
P90: Jn 18:36-19:1; 19:2-7
P98: Rev 1:13-20
It is thought that the liturgy was translated into Syriac and Coptic during this
century. In contrast with the West, the Eastern practice has always been to
conduct the church service in the vernacular.
The Third Century
201 A flood destroyed the Christian church in Edessa.
202 6th Persecution of the Church, under Septimius Severus (198-211).
Leonides, the father of Origen (see 211 below) was martyred and his property
confiscated.
Alban, a Roman soldier, killed in Verulamium during this persecution, in 209.
First British martyr. Executed for sheltering a Christian priest.
203 Perpetua, her slave girl Felicitas and four male slaves martyred at Carthage,
killed by wild beasts. All but one had been catechumens when arrested and were
baptized in prison. Felicitas gave birth there. Perpetua and one male slave,
Saturus, experienced visions while imprisoned.
210 Minucius Felix, a North African, wrote his Octavius.
Christian faith, the Octavius is noted for its excellent Latin.
An apology for the
CHURCH HISTORY - 24
211 Origen “Adamantius” became head of the catechetical school in Alexandria.
He left the school in 232 or 233. Born in Alexandria around 185, Origen had
been taught by Ammonius Saccas, the same person who later taught Plotinus
(see 244 below).
Many speculate that Ammonius was the originator of
Neoplatonism. Later, Origen had been instructed by Clement of Alexandria.
Origen died in Tyre in 253 or 254. His death was largely due to the harsh
treatment he received in prison in Tyre during the Decian persecutions (from
about 249).
Origin compiled the Hexapla, six translations of the Old Testament in parallel
columns including the Hebrew, a transliteration of the Hebrew into Greek, and
the four main Greek versions. He considered the Old Testament canon to consist
of those books in the Greek Bible, but since this included books not available in
Hebrew, Origen advised that the additional scriptures not be cited in disputations
with the Jews. His method of interpreting scriptures was largely allegorical and
conveyed spiritual truth -- the literal sense was of little moment to him. Like
Clement, he rejected a literal millennium.
He believed that all souls existed before they united with the flesh. All souls but
one fell away from God; and it was this one faithful soul that God chose to unite
with his Logos to form the Son of Man. Origen believed in the freedom of the
will, and did not exclude the possibility that the redeemed may fall away, even in
heaven. On the other hand, Origen held that the devil himself will be saved.
Many of his views, particularly on the pre-existence of souls and universal
redemption, were condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553. Eusebius
of Caesarea later reported that Origen had castrated himself, but Origen’s own
commentaries on Matthew’s gospel make that seem very unlikely.
Origen was opposed to Monarchianism, either in its modalistic form, or in the
view that the Son was simply a holy man filled to a unique degree with the Spirit.
He taught that while the Father and the Son are one in power and will, they are
two distinct realities (similar to Justin’s Logos theology). They are distinct as the
archetype and the flawless image. But, in Origen, the Son is lower in being than
the Father and is subordinate to him. The Son is begotten, not made, and his
generation is eternal, not in time. He is the mediator between the created world
and the Supreme Father.
Origen insisted Mary needed redemption from her sins, like all other humans.
Unlike Tertullian, he believed Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life. He
believed Jesus’ brothers are Joseph’s sons, not hers.
About words:
Much of the debate concerning the Trinity and Christology
centered on the meaning of the words hypostasis and ousia.
They were
synonyms originally, the former Stoic and the latter Platonic, meaning real
existence or essence. But Origen frequently used hypostasis in the sense of
individual subsistence or individual existent.
In his Commentary on Romans, written between 233 and 244, Origen wrote, “It
is also due to this [hereditary sin] that the church has a tradition from the
apostles to give baptism even to infants.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 25
Origen’s interpretation of Mt 16.17-18 is at variance with papal claims to
supremacy over the church. Origen saw the Rock as Christ (1 Cor 10.4), and all
who have faith in Christ like Peter as ‘rocks.’ According to Ep 2.2, all the
apostles (and the prophets) are the foundation on which the church is built.
Eusebius reported (Book VI, Chapter 33) that Origen was instrumental in
correcting the Christology of Beryllus, the bishop of Bostra in Arabia. Beryllus’
teachings had occasioned discussion with other bishops and eventually resulted
in a conference, which Origen attended. Apparently, Beryllus had taught that the
Son did not exist before his human life and did not possess divinity of his own.
Origen both stated that The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) did not “circulate in the
Churches as divine” (Against Celcus, Book V, Chapter LIV) and quoted it as
Scripture (De Principiis, Book IV, 35).
211 Apollonius, an opponent of Montanism, flourished.
212 Full citizenship extended to all free inhabitants of the empire.
216 The emperor Caracalla (211-217) took vengeance on the city of Alexandria.
His wrath was fiercest against the literary community there, because of certain
sarcastic verses that had been written about him for murdering his brother Geta.
217 Callistus (217-222) became bishop of Rome, to Hippolytus’ horror. At some
time and in some fashion that is now obscure to us, Hippolytus was also ordained
bishop of Rome - speaking in an anachronistic manner, he was an “anti-pope.”
Yet he was, soon after his martyrdom, considered a saint of the Church.
The Monarchian controversy continued. Tertullian, in Africa, argued that God is
one substance consisting in three persons (terminology eventually adopted by
most of the church).
Callistus was the first bishop of Rome known to have quoted the “Rock” passage
in Matthew as applicable to his own office, around the year 220. Some believe
that Tertullian’s On Modesty was written as a response to an order by Callistus
that penance be imposed on those who committed sexual sins, in preparation for
their restoration to communion. Writing as a Montanist, Tertullian was opposed
to their restoration, and in On Modesty he put an argument based on Mt. 16.18
into Callistus’ mouth. Tertullian did not have Callistus claiming a primacy over
the church, however, but simply that bishops (“every Church akin to Peter”) had
the power to forgive sins. Tertullian argued that this power was personal,
belonging to Peter alone.
The interpretation of the passage was further
developed by Siricius (384/5).
220 Around this date, Hippolytus established the date of Christ’s birth as Dec.
25. In the East, January 6 was the date assigned for this. The East adopted the
Western view during the fourth century.
The emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced the cult of the Syrian sun god Sol
to Rome in around this year.
CHURCH HISTORY - 26
222 Julius Africanus went on an embassy to the emperor Severus to gain his
support for the building of Nicopolis in Palestine (formerly Emmaus). Africanus is
best known for his chronology, in which he states that the time from Adam to the
sixteenth year of Tiberius (29/30 A.D.) is 5531 years. It would thus seem that 1
A.D. is year of the world 5501 in Julius’ chronology.
Africanus was also architect for the library Severus built in the Pantheon in
Rome, completed in around 227, and he corresponded with Origen, arguing that
the book of Susanna (included in the Septuagint text of Daniel) was spurious.
225? Papyrus 45: 1st Chester Beatty, Gospels (Caesarean), Acts (Alexandrian):
Mt 20:24-32; 21:13-19; 25:41-26:39;
Mk 4:36-40; 5:15-26, 38-6:3, 16-25, 36-50; 7:3-15, 25-8:1, 10-26, 34-9:9, 1831; 11:27-12:1, 5-8, 13-19,24-28;
Lk 6:31-41,45-7:7; 9:26-41, 45-10:1, 6-22, 26-11:1, 6-25, 28-46, 50-12:12,
18-37, 42-13:1, 6-24, 29-14:10, 17-33;
Jn 10:7-25, 30-11:10, 18-36, 42-57;
Ac 4:27-36; 5:10-21, 30-39; 6:7-7:2, 10-21, 32-41, 52-8:1, 14-25, 34-9:6, 1627, 35-10:2, 10-23, 31-41; 11:2-14, 24-12:5, 13-22; 13:6-16, 25-36, 46-14:3,
15-23; 15:2-7, 19-27, 38-16:4, 15-21, 32-40; 17:9-17
Papyrus 967: Chester Beatty 9, Greek Ezekiel 11:25-end, ~Codex Vaticanus
231 A private house in the city of Dura-Europas on the Euphrates was adapted
for Christian worship. This is the earliest known example of a church with
religious pictures on the walls. The art appears to have been influenced by
similar work in a synagogue in the same city. Depicted on frescoes are Adam
and Eve, the Good Shepherd and his flock, the Samaritan woman at the well,
Christ walking on the water, the raising of Lazarus, the resurrection of Christ, the
healing of the paralytic and David’s victory over Goliath.
232 Dionysius, later to become bishop of Alexandria, succeeded Heraclus as head
of the catechetical school in Alexandria.
235 Persecution under the emperor Maximin (235-238). At this time, the bishop
of Rome, Pontian, and Hippolytus were exiled to Sardinia. Pontian died soon
thereafter, and Hippolytus in about 238.
240 The Pythian games had been introduced into many cities of the Roman
Empire by this year. These were athletic contests held every four years in honor
of Apollo, and were originally associated with the oracle at Delphi.
241 End of the records of the Fratres Arvales. This was a pagan priesthood or
college in Rome which offered annual sacrifices for the fertility of farmlands.
CHURCH HISTORY - 27
244 Plotinus, a pagan from Egypt, opened a school in Rome. Plotinus’ philosophy
emphasized the transcendence of God, and His incomprehensibility (due to His
simplicity). Nous is emanated from God and contains ideas of both classes and
individuals. The two Souls (corresponding to Plato’s World Soul) proceed from
the Nous. [The interpretation of Plotinus which sees Nous and Soul as emanated
has been questioned by modern philosophers - in particular, see Lloyd Gerson’s
Plotinus.] Material creation exists at the bottom of this chain and is the principle
of evil. Curiously, Plotinus criticized the Gnostics for their contempt for material
reality, considering it worthy of high value as the image of intelligible reality.
Plotinus taught that the soul can rise to union with God through purification, the
rejection of sense perception in favor of philosophy and science, a stage which is
beyond discursive thought, and a final stage of mystical union which is beyond
separation. Vladimir Lossky points out that whereas Plotinus viewed union as
simplicity and the removal of distinction, Christian mysticism sees God’s
incomprehensibility as due not to His simplicity, but as absolute, and thus union
with God is a “going forth from being as such.” Plotinus died in 269 or 270. His
chief disciple was Porphyry, a critic of Christianity, who offered Neoplatonism as
a cultured alternative to Christianity among the upper classes.
247 Dionysius, a former pupil of Origen, became bishop of Alexandria (247-64).
248? Late in this year or early in 249, pagans in Alexandria initiated a
persecution of Christians in Alexandria. Some historians theorize that this
spontaneous persecution may have been caused by the emperor Philip’s (24449) unpopular tax reform, and his [possible] association with Christians: Philip
purportedly attended Holy Week services at Antioch, where bishop Babylas had
him stand among the penitents.
249 In around this year, a council in Smyrna determined that heretics must be
rebaptized before they could enter the Church.
249-51 7th Persecution of the Church, under the emperor Decius (249-251).
The bishops of Rome, Antioch and Jerusalem were martyred.
Decius killed the emperor Philip in 249, then, by mid-December of that year,
promulgated an edict requiring sacrifice to the gods. It is possible that Decius
was distancing himself from Philip’s pro-Christian stance, thus demonstrating his
loyalty to the empire’s traditional sacred rites. He required that everyone
possess a certificate proving he had sacrificed to the gods (Jews, however, were
excepted from this requirement, and from the edict requiring sacrifice). Many
Christians either sacrificed or purchased certificates of sacrifice from
commissioners, which some consider just as bad.
A plague began in Decius’ reign, and it continued for about 15 years.
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (248-258), argued that no human being has the
power to remit apostasy. Cyprian’s views eventually result in the Donatist
schism.
Cyprian interpreted Matthew 16.18 as giving no special privilege to Peter. In his
view, Christ singles Peter out as a symbol of unity. The other apostles were
exactly what Peter was. Cyprian was constantly entitled, “Most glorious and
most blessed Pope.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 28
Cyprian, at least, enjoyed a limited monarchy as bishop: “Since I have made it a
rule from the beginning of my episcopate not to decide things on my own
account without consulting you [the presbyters] and having the agreement of the
people.”
In 251 or 253, at a council at Carthage, Cyprian responded to a query from
Fidus, a rural bishop, whether infant baptism should be delayed until the eighth
day. Cyprian replied that there should be no delay. He saw no reason to run the
risk of the child’s eternal damnation.
Infant communion as well, Cyprian
reported, was the custom at Carthage. Fidus seems to have been motivated to
delay baptism because of the impure appearance of newborn infants! (Epistle
LVIII.)
In a work entitled The Lapsed, Cyprian recounted the story of a young (nursing)
Christian girl who was made to partake of a pagan sacrifice. Thereafter, the girl
was no longer physically able to keep down the bread and wine of the eucharist.
This is early evidence of paedocommunion.
250 In a letter to Paul of Samasota, Dionysius of Alexandria frequently referred
to “the Theotokos Mary (h qeotokoV Maria).”
Diophantos of Alexandria flourished around this year.
introduce symbolism into algebra.
He was the first to
250? Papyrus 72: Bodmer 5-11+, pub. 1959, “Alexandrian” text-type: Nativity
of Mary; 3Cor; Odes of Solomon 11; Jude 1-25; Melito’s Homily on Passover;
Hymn fragment; Apology of Phileas; Ps 33,34; 1Pt 1:1-5:14; 2Pt 1:1-3:18; Jude
1-25
Papyrus 77: Mt 23:30-39
Papyrus Chester Beatty: #5:R962: Gn 8:13-9:2; Gn 24:13-46:33, Enoch 91105;
#7: I 8:18-19:13,38:14-45:5,54:1-60:22;
#8: Jr 4:30-5:24;
#10: Dn 1-12:13 (+Add), Bel 4-39, Sus 5-end, Esther 1:1a-8:6(+Add)
The uncial 0189: Ac 5:3-21
250 Gothic raids into Asia minor.
251 Two rival candidates vied for the vacant see of Rome. Novatian held that
the church cannot forgive or accept those guilty of murder, adultery or apostasy.
Cornelius held that the bishop could remit even grave sin. Novatian’s view was
foreshadowed by that of Hippolytus and Tertullian against Callistus (see 217).
Cornelius had precedence in Paul’s treatment of the incestuous Corinthian and in
Irenaeus’ view that an adulterous Christian woman could be restored by
repentance.
CHURCH HISTORY - 29
Cornelius won the election (and this was, apparently, an election by the
congregation), and the followers of Novation formed their own communities,
which eventually withered away. Cyprian of Carthage, after initial hesitation,
ended in communion with Cornelius.
In Letter XL, Cyprian indicated that the laity had a role in the election of bishops:
“nor shall we cease to command them to lay aside their pernicious dissensions
and disputes, and to be aware that it is an impiety to forsake their Mother; and
to acknowledge and understand that when a bishop is once made and approved
by the testimony and judgment of his colleagues and the people, another can by
no means be appointed.” This is from a letter to Cornelius, newly elected bishop
of Rome, in which Cyprian described how he dealt with the followers of Novatian.
See also Letter LI.
In writing to Cornelius, bishop of Rome, Cyprian referred to him as “brother,” as
did Cornelius in reply. The bishops of Rome did not begin calling their fellow
bishops “sons” until Damasus’ time.
“With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even to set
sail and carry letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the chair of Peter and
to the principal Church, in which sacerdotal unity has its source; nor did they
take thought that these are Romans, whose faith was praised by the preaching
Apostle, and among whom it is not possible for perfidy to have entrance. …For,
as it has been decreed by all of us - and is equally fair and just -that the case of
every one should be heard there where the crime has been committed; and a
portion of the flock has been assigned to each individual pastor, which he is to
rule and govern, having to give account of his doing to the Lord; it certainly
behooves those over whom we are placed not to run about nor to break up the
harmonious agreement of the bishops with their crafty and deceitful rashness,
but there to plead their cause, where they may be able to have both accusers
and witnesses of their crime…” St. Cyprian, Letter to Cornelius of Rome, LIV,14.
252 A plague struck North Africa. The Christians feared that this would be
interpreted by the pagans that “the gods” were angered and would lead to a
renewal of Decius’ persecution.
254-6 Stephen bishop of Rome. He decided that Spanish congregations in
Merida and Leon should receive as their bishop one who had lapsed during
Decius’ persecution. The congregations appealed to Cyprian of Carthage (bishop
248-58). Cyprian called a council which decided in favor of the Spanish.
Stephen’s is the first known invocation of the “Thou art Peter...” text to affirm his
position as Peter’s successor (but see Callistus and Siricius, 384/5 below. The
attribution of such a statement to Stephen was clearly made by Firmilian, bishop
of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in a letter to Cyprian (Epistle 74).)
Cyprian
countered: “In the person of one man he gave the keys to all, that he might
denote the unity of all; the rest, therefore, were the same that Peter was, being
admitted to an equal participation in honor and power, but a beginning is made
from unity that the church of Christ may be shown to be one.”
255 A compilation on the bishops of Rome, known as the Liberian Catalogue, had
been written by this time.
CHURCH HISTORY - 30
255? Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, met with the presbyters and teachers of
the Church in the district of Arsinoe for three consecutive days to discuss
chiliasm. A certain Coracion, under the influence of a bishop Nepos of Egypt,
had been the chief local proponent of a “millennium of bodily luxury upon this
earth” [Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 7.24]. After the discussion, Coracion
confessed himself to have been in error and completely convinced by the
arguments presented against chiliasm.
Dionysius later wrote a book entitled On the Promises, directed against Nepos’
teachings, which presented his own view that Revelation was not written by John
the Beloved. Dionysius stated that some reject the book, “pronouncing it
without sense or argument,” and claim that Cerinthus the heretic was its author,
but that he himself could not reject it, “as many brethren hold it in high esteem.”
He added, “I do not reject what I cannot comprehend.”
256 Cyprian held a council in September of this year which held that baptism
performed by the Novatians was ineffective. Stephen of Rome argued against
Cyprian in favor of the validity of baptism administered by wicked persons.
Firmilianus, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, wrote a letter to Cyprian in which
he compared Stephen, bishop of Rome, to Judas, complained of his “audacity
and pride,” and ridiculed his claim to be the “successor of Peter, on whom the
foundations of the Church were laid.”
256 The Franks crossed the Rhine.
257 8th Persecution of the Church, under Valerian (253-259). Edicts were
published demanding outward conformity with paganism and Christians were
forbidden to hold worship services, under penalty of death. In 258, Valerian
began to put the clergy to death - St. Cyprian was martyred in that year. He
also attacked prominent laymen, but remitted the death penalty in exchange for
a denial of Christ. The persecution continued through 260. Given the troubles of
the day, Valerian had sought to foretell the future via human sacrifice and other
rites. When his efforts failed, blame fell on the Christians within the imperial
family.
Thus, his desire to restore the efficacy of pagan religious efforts
motivated Valerian’s persecution.
258 On June 29 of this year, the remains of Sts. Peter and Paul were transferred
to the ad Catacumbos on the Appian way. The feast of Saints Peter and Paul in
the Roman calendar dates from this year and commemorates this event.
258 Xystus, bishop of Rome, was executed, along with his deacons. As he was
being arrested, Xystus charged St. Lawrence with care of the poor. Lawrence
was subsequently arrested himself. In prison, he converted a baptised a blind
man, pouring water from a vessel three times over the man’s body. The blind
man was healed. Lawrence, refusing to sacrifice to idols, was burned with hot
irons, beaten, and laid on a hot iron sheet, where he died.
258 The Alemanni pushed through the Alps into the Po River valley. As a result,
Verona, Como and Aquileia were fortified with stone from tombs.
CHURCH HISTORY - 31
259 Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, became involved in a dispute in Libya
between adherents of the Logos theology (see above, year 189) and some
modalistic Monarchians. Dionysius argued that the Son and the Father are as
different as a boat and a boatman, and denied they are of the same substance.
The Libyans appealed to Dionysius of Rome (260-68), who assembled a synod to
consider the issue. He rebuked the Sabellians and those who separate the
Godhead into three gods or consider the Son a creature or work. In his Defense
of the Nicene Definition, Athanasius quotes Dionysius of Alexandria to say, “And I
have written in another letter a refutation of that false charge they bring against
me, that I deny that Christ was one in essence with God.” Dionysius did repent
of using the expressions “the Son was made,” and that “He is not eternal.”
Writing against the Sabellians, Dionysius of Rome gave the following exposition
of the Trinity:
CHURCH HISTORY - 32
“Next, I may reasonably turn to those who divide and cut to pieces and destroy
that most sacred doctrine of the Church of God, the Divine Monarchy, making it
as it were three powers and partitive subsistences and god-heads three. I am
told that some among you who are catechists and teachers of the Divine Word,
take the lead in this tenet, who are diametrically opposed, so to speak, to
Sabellius’s opinions; for he blasphemously says that the Son is the Father, and
the Father the Son, but they in some sort preach three Gods, as dividing the
sacred Monad into three subsistences foreign to each other and utterly separate.
For it must needs be that with the God of the Universe, the Divine Word is
united, and the Holy Ghost must repose and habitate in God; thus in one as in a
summit, I mean the God of the Universe, must the Divine Triad be gathered up
and brought together. For it is the doctrine of the presumptuous Marcion, to
sever and divide the Divine Monarchy into three origins, - a devil’s teaching, not
that of Christ’s true disciples and lovers of the Savior’s lessons, for they know
well that a Triad is preached by divine Scripture, but that neither Old Testament
nor New preaches three Gods. Equally must one censure those who hold the Son
to be a work, and consider that the Lord has come into being, as one of things
which really came to be; whereas the divine oracles witness to a generation
suitable to Him and becoming, but not to any fashioning or making.
A
blasphemy then is it, not ordinary, but even the highest, to say that the Lord is
in any sort a handiwork. For if He came to be Son, once He was not; but He was
always, if (that is) He be in the Father, as He says Himself, and if the Christ be
Word and Wisdom and Power (which, as ye know, divine Scripture says), and
these attributes be powers of God. If then the Son came into being, once these
attributes were not; consequently there was a time, when God was without
them; which is most absurd. And why say more on these points to you, men full
of the Spirit and well aware of the absurdities which come to view from saying
that the Son is a work? Not attending, as I consider, to this circumstance, the
authors of this opinion have entirely missed the truth, in explaining, contrary to
the sense of divine and prophetic Scripture in the passage, the words, ‘The Lord
created me a beginning of His ways unto His works. (Prov. 8.22)’ For the sense
of ‘He created,’ as ye know, is not one, for we must understand ‘He created’ in
this place, as ‘He set over the works made by Him,’ that is, ‘made by the Son
Himself.’ And ‘He created’ here must not be taken for ‘made,’ for creating differs
from making. ‘Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? hath He not made
thee and created thee? (Dt. 32.6)’ says Moses in his great song in Deuteronomy.
And one may Say to them, O reckless men, is He a work, who is ‘the First-born
of every creature, who is born from the womb before the morning star, (Col.
1.15 and Psalm 110.3)’ who said, as Wisdom, ‘Before all the hills He begets me?
(Prov. 8.25)’ And in many passages of the divine oracles is the Son said to have
been generated, but nowhere to have come into being; which manifestly convicts
those of misconception about the Lord’s generation, who presume to call His
divine and ineffable generation a making. Neither then may we divide into three
Godheads the wonderful and divine Monad; nor disparage with the name of
‘work’ the dignity and exceeding majesty of the Lord; but we must believe in God
the Father Almighty, and in Christ Jesus His Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and hold
that to the God of the universe the Word is united. For ‘I,’ says He, ‘and the
Father are one;’ and, ‘I in the Father and the Father in Me.’ For thus both the
Divine Triad, and the holy preaching of the Monarchy, will be preserved.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 33
260 The emperor Valerian taken prisoner by the Persian emperor Shahpuhr I.
The prince of Palmyra (who had gained independence after Valerian’s defeat)
seized control of the Eastern provinces of the empire until 272, when they were
regained by the emperor Aurelian.
260 Paul of Samosata became bishop of Antioch in Syria. He disdained the
Logos theology, and spoke of Jesus as a mere man who was uniquely inspired at
his baptism (Adoptionism).
In his view, the Word and the Spirit were
manifestations of the Father. He was condemned by a synod in Antioch in 268
(264?) presided over by Helenus, bishop of Tarsus. Dionysius of Alexandria and
Firmilius of Caesarea were invited to attend the synod. Paul held onto his power
because he was favored by the Palmyra government. When Aurelian (270-75)
regained control of the Eastern provinces, he declared the church building to be
the legal property of whomever the bishops of Italy and Rome decide. It appears
that Aurelian’s concern was loyalty on the part of the Antiochian bishop, and he
chose to employ the bishop of Rome to guarantee that loyalty. Paul has been
viewed as the ancestor of Arianism.
Gregory Thaumaturgus (213-270) was present at the council which condemned
Paul of Samosata. Though a student of Origen, Gregory’s view of the Trinity was
orthodox. His Exposition of Faith is considered a forerunner of the Nicene Creed:
“There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom
and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father
of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God,
Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the
constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of
one Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and
Immortal of Immortal, and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit,
having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to
men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the
Living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sancitification; in whom
is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who
is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty,
neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in
servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it
was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither
was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without
variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.”
261 The emperor Gallenius proclaimed toleration for Christians by edict. This, in
response to petitions from Christian bishops, also restored confiscated churches
and cemeteries. Before this time, churches could not own property, since
Christianity was illegal. Churches now began to receive money and property
bequeathed in wills.
262 The temple of Artemis in Ephesus destroyed by Gothic invaders.
CHURCH HISTORY - 34
262/3 Porphyry became a disciple of Plotinus in Rome about this year. He
arranged Plotinus’ writings into six books of nine chapters each, the Enneads.
Porphyry placed great stress on Plotinus’ doctrine of salvation as an ascetic
process involving turning one’s attention from the lower to the higher, ending in
the knowledge of God. Porphyry stressed the need for asceticism - abstinence
from meat, celibacy, avoidance of frivolous entertainment, etc. Porphyry also
wrote fifteen books against Christianity, answered by Methodius, Eusebius of
Caesarea, and others, and burned in 448. Socrates, the fifth century church
historian, states that Porphyry was an apostate from Christianity.
268 The Juthurigi and the Alemanni advanced to within 70 miles of Rome in this
year, and again in 270. In consequence, a high wall was built around Rome.
269 The Goths invaded the Balkans. Romans defeated them at Naisus.
270 Goths were permitted to settle in Dacia (that is, the territory north of the
Danube). The emperor Aurelian withdrew Roman rule from Dacia.
274 Born in southern Babylonia, Mani (216-274) died after being imprisoned by
the Persian emperor, Bahram I, at the instigation of Zoroastrian priests. Mani
was the founder of Manichaeanism, a religion which was to rival Christianity for
adherents, reaching Rome early in the fourth century. A gnostic religion,
Manichaeanism held that matter is intrinsically evil, the prison of the soul.
Salvation was through gnosis, an inner illumination in which the soul gained
knowledge of God. The righteous went to paradise at death, but the wicked
(those who procreate, own possessions, drink wine, etc.) are reborn. Good and
evil were independent principles, and both were held to continue indefinitely.
274-5 The Emperor Aurelian (270-75) promoted Sun worship as the official cult
of the empire.
275?
17:2
Papyrus 47: 3rd Chester Beatty, ~Sinaiticus, Rv9:10-11:3,5-16:15,17-
284 Diocletian became emperor. Ruled through 305, when he abdicated.
285 St. Anthony began the first monastic community, in Egypt.
286 On February 6, Julian of Homs (Emessa) was martyred. A Christian
physician, Julian slipped into prison to attend to Bishop Silouan and two disciples,
who had been imprisoned and tortured for forty days. Julian’s activity was
reported to his father, as a staunch pagan, who turned him over to the governor.
Julian was tortured for eleven months, during which time his father sent many
to entice him away from the faith. But Julian persevered in the truth, converting
those who had came to convert him. Finally, his father hired a blacksmith to
drive nails into his feet and head. Julian died in a cave outside the city where he
had gone to pray. His relics were removed to Emessa, where they were
rediscovered in the 1970s.
286 Diocletian divided the empire into East and West. He appointed Maximian
Augustus in the West. The capital in the East was Nicomedia; in the West, Milan.
A subordinate, called a Caesar, was appointed for each Augustus. Their cities
were Trier in the West and Salonica in the East.
CHURCH HISTORY - 35
During Diocletian’s reign, the civil diocese of Italy was divided in two. Milan was
made capital of the northern diocese. The church accommodated itself to this
civil change, and the bishop of Milan assumed jurisdiction over northern Italy
(Italy annonaria). Rome’s jurisdiction was limited to the southern diocese.
286 The Forum in Rome burned. It was restored under Diocletian.
300? Other 3rd century NT papyri:
P1: Mt 1:1-9, 12, 14-20
P4: Lk 1:58-59; 1:62-2:1; 2:6-7; 3:8-4:2; 4:29-32: 4:34-35; 5:3-8; 5:30-6:16
P5: Jn 1:23-31, 33-40; 16:14-30; 20:11-17, 19-20, 22-25
P9: 1Jn 4:11-12, 14-17
P12: Heb 1:1
P15: 1 Cor 7:18-8:4
P20: Jm 2:19-3:9
P22: Jn 15:25-16:2; 16:21-32
P23: Jm 1:10-12, 15-18
P27: Rm 8:12-22, 24-27; 8:33-9:3; 9:5-9
P28: Jn 6:8-12, 17-22
P29: Ac 26:7-8, 20
P30: 1 Th 4:12-13, 16-17; 5:3, 8-10, 12-18, 25-28; 2 Th 1:1-2
P38: Ac 18:27-19:6, 12-16 (P38 dates from late in the third century, ~300 AD)
P39: Jn 8:14-22
P40: Rm 1:24-27; 1:31-2:3; 3:21-4:8; 6:4-5:16; 9:16-17:27
P45 (Chester Beaty): Mt 20:24-32; 21:13-19; 25:41-26, 39; Mk 4:36-40; 5:1526; 5:38-6:3; 6:16-25; 6:36-50; 7:3-15; 7:25-8:1; 8:10-26; 8:34-9:9; 9:189:31; 11:27-12.1; 12:5-8, 13-19, 24-28; Lu 6:31-41; 6:45-7:7; 9:26-41; 9:4510:1; 10:6-22; 10:26-11:1; 11:6-25; 11:28-46; 11:50-12:12; 12:18-37;
12:42-31:1; 13:6-24; 13:29-14:10; 14:17-33; Jn 4:51, 54; 5:21, 24; 10:7-25;
10:30-11:10; 11:18-36, 42-57; Acts 4:27-36; 5:10-21, 30-39; 6:7-7:2; 7:1021, 32-41; 7:52-8:1; 8:14-25; 8:34-9:6; 9:16-27; 9:35-10:2; 10:10-23, 31-41;
11:2-14; 11:24-12:5; 12:13-22; 13:6-16, 25-36; 13:46-14:3; 14:15-23; 15:27, 19-27; 15:38-16:4; 16:15-21, 32-40; 17:9-17
P47 (Chester Beaty) Rev 9:10-11:3; 11:5-16:15; 16:17-17:2
P48: Ac 23:11-17, 25-29
P49: Ep 4:16-29; 4:32-5:13
P53: Mt 26:29-40; Ac 9:33-10:1
P65: 1 Th 1:3- 2:1, 6-13
P69: Lk 22:41, 45-48, 58-61
P70: Mt 2:13-16; 2:22-3:1; 11:26-27; 12:4-5; 24:3-6, 12-15
Papyrus 75: Bodmer 14-15, Luke & John, earliest extant Luke; Lk 3:18-22;
3:33-4:2; 4:34-5:10; 5:37-6:4; 6:10-7:32; 7:35-39; 7:41-43; 7:46-9:2; 9:417:15; 7:19-18:18; 22:4-end; Jn 1:1-11:45; 11:48-57; 12:3-13:10; 14:815:10. P75 is extremely close to Vaticanus (B).
P80: Jn 3:34
P87: Phm 13-15, 24-25
P91: Act 2:30-37; 2:46-3:2
The following uncials:
0171: Mt 10:17-23, 25-32; Lk 22:44-56, 61-64
CHURCH HISTORY - 36
0220: Rm 4:23-5:3; 5:8-13
0212 (Diatessaron): Mt 27:56-57; Mk 15:40-42; Lk 23:49-51, 54; Jn 19:38
The earliest Syriac translations of the gospels were made during the third
century: Syrus Curetonianus and Syrus Sinaiticus. Known collectively as Vetus
Syra, Syrus Curetonianus appears to be a revision of Syrus Sinaiticus. They
differ in style from the Peshitta, which dates from about a century later (see 400
above).
300St. Gregory the Illuminator converted King Tiridates III of Armenia to the
Christian faith. Armenia thus became a Christian nation. During the following
century, the liturgy was translated into and conducted in Armenian.
300 Early in the fourth century the celebration of 25 December, the Sun god’s
birthday at mid-winter, as Christ’s birthday began somewhere in the West (see
336 below). Also, St. Peter’s basilica was built on the site of Peter’s grave (see
330).
300?The Apostolic Constitutions were written around this time. Canon 35 gave
an indication of the role of the bishop within the Church: “The bishops of every
nation must acknowledge him who is first among them and account him as their
head and do nothing of consequence without his consent; but each may do those
things which concern his own parish and the country places which belong to it.
But neither let him who is the first do anything without the consent of all. For so
there will be oneness of mind and God will be glorified through the Lord in the
Holy Spirit.”
Canon 85 gave the following list of the canon of Scripture: “Let the following
books be esteemed venerable and holy by you, both of the clergy and laity. Of
the Old Covenant: the five books of Moses-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
and Deuteronomy; one of Joshua the son of Nun, one of the Judges, one of Ruth,
four of the Kings, two of the Chronicles, two of Ezra, one of Esther, one of Judith,
three of the Maccabees, one of Job, one hundred and fifty psalms; three books of
Solomon-Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs; sixteen prophets. And
besides these, take care that your young persons learn the Wisdom of the very
learned Sirach. But our sacred books, that is, those of the New Covenant, are
these: the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the fourteen Epistles
of Paul; two Epistles of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude; two
Epistles of Clement; and the Constitutions dedicated to you the bishops by me
Clement, in eight books; which it is not fit to publish before all, because of the
mysteries contained in them; and the Acts of us the Apostles.” [Note that
Revelation is absent from the New Testament canon.]
The Apostolic Constitutions also contain clear evidence that infant communion
was practiced in the church.
CHURCH HISTORY - 37
The Fourth Century
301+ During this century, the Eastern Church began singing the Gloria in
excelsis in the Daily Offices. The hymn was originally written in Greek. It was
adopted for use in the West, often during Matins. The Gloria was first introduced
to Rome by Symmachus (498-514). When the Roman liturgy spread throughout
the Western Church during the eighth century, the Gloria came to be used
exclusively in the mass.
301 Diocletian set the stage for the Middle Ages with an edict which forced
tradesmen to remain in their trades and their descendants to follow in their
footsteps. Tenants were compelled to remain on their land for life.
301 Under King Tiridate, Armenia adopted Christianity as the state religion.
303 9th Persecution of the Church, under Diocletian. When augurs could no
longer find the usual signs on the livers of sacrificed animals, Diocletian
consulted the oracle of Apollo at Miletus. The god blamed the Christians. On 23
Feb 303, the Christian cathedral in Nicomedia was torn down. The next day, an
edict declared all churches were to be destroyed, all Bibles and liturgical books
surrendered, sacred vessels confiscated, and all meetings for (Christian) worship
forbidden. A few months later, an edict limited to the East required the arrest of
all clergy who refused to sacrifice to the gods.
303 Two Roman army officers serving on the Syrian frontier, Sts. Sergios and
Bacchus, both Christians, refused to sacrifice to Jupiter. Maximian demoted
them, then shamed them by marching them through the streets dressed as
women. Next, they were scourged in Risage, Syria, where Bacchus died from his
wounds. Boards were nailed to Sergios’ feet, and he was forced to walk on
them. Afterwards, he was beheaded. (See 431 below.)
303 The council of Elvira (near Granada). Nineteen bishops and 24 priests met
at this first council of the Church in Spain. The council adopted 81 canons, 34 of
them dealing with marriage and sexual misconduct. No reconciliation with the
Church was permitted for those who committed the sins of idolatry, divorce,
incest, or repeated adultery. Punishment for lesser sins was exclusion from the
eucharist, for periods as long as 10 years. “[B]ishops, priests, deacons and all
members of the clergy connected with the liturgy must abstain from their wives
and must not beget sons” (see Siricius, 385-6). Canon 43 emphasizes the
importance of celebrating the day of Pentecost, and it seems to be directed
against those who would close Pentecost on the fortieth day after Pascha. At any
rate, this canon is the first Christain use of ‘Pentecost’ as referring to a specific
day and not to the full fifty-day period.
The exact date of the council is not
known. The range 300-303 and the year 309 have scholarly support.
304 All citizens of the empire required to sacrifice to the gods under pain of
death. In practice, this was limited to the East.
304 Marcellinus, bishop of Rome, fell away into apostasy during this persecution.
CHURCH HISTORY - 38
Also martyred this year was St. George. A native of Cappadocia and child of
Christian parents, George became a tribune in Roman army regiment. Diocletian
honored him with the rank of “trophy-bearer” for his bravery. When the
persecution began, George voluntarily confessed his Christian faith to the
emperor. Diolcetian commanded him to sacrifice to the gods. When George
refused, he was stretched out supine with a heavy stone on his chest. The next
day, George again refused to sacrifice, and Diocletian had him attached to a
great wheel which tore at his flesh with an assortment of barbs. When George
again refused to abjure Christ, Diocletian had him beheaded.
Another martyr during this persecution was Pelagia of Tarsus.
One of
Diocletian’s sons fell in love with her, but she had dedicated herself to God
instead. Diocletian’s son killed himself when he realized he couldn’t have her.
Diocletian then had Pelagia burned.
305 St. Panteleimon, a physician of Nicomedia, martyred. Panteleimon had
given his services freely. His relics were later moved to Constantinople and a
church was built there and dedicated to him. This church was rebuilt by Justinian
in 532.
305 On May 1, Diocletian, and his co-emperor Maximian, abdicated.
306 Flavius Constantius, Caesar in the West, died at York. (Constantius had
been Maximian’s subordinate caesar in the West, becoming caesar augustus in
the West upon Maximian’s abdcation.) The army proclaimed his son Constantine
Emperor.
306 A dispute arose between Peter, bishop of Alexandria, and Meletius, bishop of
Lycopolis. Peter had Meletius deposed for fomenting discord: Meletius was
critical of the light penances Peter imposed on those who lapsed during
Diocletian’s persecution. Persecution began again in 308, and Meletius was
exiled to the mines in Palestine. He returned in 311, and led a schism after
being excommunicated by Peter. The Meletians were to become allies of the
Arians against Athanasius.
311 The Emperor Galerius issued an edict allowing Christianity the right to exist
and Christians to form assemblies.
311 Death of Methodius of Olympius. A theologian in the Asiatic tradition of
Irenaeus, he attacked Origen’s doctrines of the preexistence of souls, matter as a
prison for the spirit, and the non-physical nature of the resurrected body.
312 Exegetical school at Antioch founded by Lucian. Lucian was also martyred in
312. His edition of the New Testament is thought by some to be the ancestor of
the Majority Text. Lucian was born at Samosata, and was under suspicion for a
period of sharing Paul of Samosata’s heretical views.
Lucian opposed the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, popular at Alexandria,
with a literal methodology. Lucian’s Christology is suspect: he apparently held
that the Word was a creature through whom all other creatures were formed.
Many major leaders of the Arian movement – Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Maris
and Theognis – were trained by Lucian.
CHURCH HISTORY - 39
312 Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius at the battle of the Milvian bridge
outside Rome. The legend is, on the way to this battle, he saw a cross in the sky
one afternoon with the words Hoc vince (by this conquer), and he adopted the
cross as his standard. He was emperor in the West. The following year, Licinius
consolidated power in the East. The Lateran palace was turned over to the
bishop of Rome, Miltiades, as an episcopal residence.
312 This was the initial year for a 15-year cycle of property taxes, known as the
indiction. The Indiction of Constantinople was used as a dating system in the
East. The year between 1 Sep 312 and 31 Aug 313 was the first year of the
indiction, as was the year from 1 Sep 327 to 31 Aug 328. The Imperial,
Caesarean, or Western Indiction is similar, but begins each year with 24
September. Apparently this is due to an error made by the Venerable Bede (see
731), who mistook 24 Sep for the autumnal equinox.
313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan: Christianity was given a legal status
equal to paganism.
313 Alexander became bishop of Alexandria. Served through 328. Opponent of
Arius, one of his presbyters. From this time, the bishop of Alexandria was “the
Pope,” emphatically beyond all others, and he retains that title to this day. The
bishops of Rome began to use the title around the year 400 – see Siricius below,
year 384.
314 Constantine, Emperor of the West, called the Council of Arles, a general
council of the Western church. Caecilian, the compromising bishop of Carthage,
was challenged by the election of a rival bishop, Majorinus, who held to the
Cyprianic theology. Majorinus was succeeded by Donatus. The quarrel between
the followers of Donatus and Caecilian was terminated in favor of Caecilian.
Since these latter only remain in communion with the churches outside Africa,
they were henceforth known as Catholics.
Donatus’ followers were called
Donatists, and this sect persevered until the Arab invasion. Donatism was
proscribed in 412 (see below). Three British bishops are reported to have
attended the Council of Arles.
314 An Egyptian named Pachomius left the Roman Army this year and joined the
hermit Palemon near Tabennisi on the east bank of the Nile. He built the first
monastic enclosure and formulated a rule for daily work and prayer. By the time
of his death in 346, St. Pachomius had founded 11 monasteries with more than
7000 monks and nuns. Pachomius is said to have destroyed a book by Origen,
whom he considered a heretic, by throwing it into the Nile. He would have
burned the book had it not contained the name of the Lord.
315 The forty holy martyrs of Sevastia. The emperor Licinius (307-324) ordered
all Christians in the army to sacrifice to idols. Forty soldiers serving in Sevastia,
Armenia, refused. During winter, they were made to stand in the extremely cold
Lake Sevastia with their hands tied behind their backs. After some time, one of
the forty left the lake, but fell dead when he was placed in a warm bath. One of
the guards then had a vision of forty crowns descending over the lake. He
understood the vision to mean that he was to become the fortieth martyr, and he
rushed into the lake with the remaining thirty-nine.
CHURCH HISTORY - 40
315 Constantine called upon Lactantius (260-330) to educate his son Crispus.
Lactantius is the author of the Divine Institutes, a comprehensive apology for
Christianity and exposition of the faith.
318 Arius, a presbyter of the Alexandrian church, began to teach the heresy that
goes by his name. He did not believe that the incarnate Son is one with the
transcendent first cause of creation. “The Son who is tempted, suffers, and dies,
however exalted he may be, is not to be equal to the immutable Father beyond
pain and death; if he is other than the Father, he is inferior.” The Logos,
therefore, is inferior to the Father. Arius had powerful supporters in Eusebius
bishop of Palestinian Caesarea and in Eusebius bishop of Nicomedia (the imperial
residence in Bithynia).
320 Constantine bridged the Danube above its confluence with the river Olt.
321 Constantine required all subjects of the Roman Empire to observe the Lord’s
day as a day of rest and also to honor Friday, the day of Christ’s death. He
allowed Christian soldiers leave to attend church on Sunday, and even enjoined
pagan soldiers to pray on Sunday. (Note that this in no way implies that
Constantine invented Christian worship on Sunday.) Prior to this time, the seven
day week had not been officially observed by the Roman Empire. Instead, the
days of the month were denoted by counting down toward the Kalends, the
Nones, and the Ides of each month.
323 Constantine won the battle of Chrysopolis. Defeated Licinius, and became
sole Roman emperor.
325 Birth of St. Gregory Nazianzus.
In January, a synod held in Antioch provisionally excommunicated Eusebius of
Caesarea, Theodotus of Laodicea, and Narcissus of Naronias in Cilicia for
adherence to the Arian heresy.
325 First Ecumenical Council, held at Nicea. Called by Constantine to settle the
dispute over Arius’ doctrines on the person of Christ. Hosius, bishop of Cordova,
presided. The legates from Rome were given the position fourth in honor. 218
of 220 bishops present agreed to a creed the council drew up, though there was
diversity in interpretation.
The creed of the council of Nicea:
"We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, visible and
invisible;
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, onlybegotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from
light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the
Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on
earth, Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and
became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day,
ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead;
"And in the Holy Spirit.
CHURCH HISTORY - 41
"But for those who say, There was when He was not, and, Before being born He
was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the
Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is
subject to alteration or change - these the Catholic Church anathematizes."
The statement in the creed that the Son is of the same substance (homoousios)
with the Father caused the greatest controversy in the subsequent battle with
the Arians. At Nicea, the Arians were able to agree to just about every other
formula that indicated the divinity of the Son. They simply interpreted these
formulae in an Arian manner. But the homoousios was unacceptable to them.
In De Decretis, Athanasius wrote: “The Council wishing to do away with the
irreligious phrases of the Arians, and to use instead the acknowledged words of
the Scriptures, that the Son is not from nothing but `from God,' and is `Word'
and `Wisdom,' and not creature or work, but a proper offspring from the Father,
Eusebius [of Nicomedia] and his fellows, led by their inveterate heterodoxy,
understood the phrase `from God' as belonging to us, as if in respect to it the
Word of God differed nothing from us, and that because it is written, `There is
one God, from whom, all things (1 Cor 8.6);' and again, `Old things are passed
away, behold, all things are become new, and all things are from God (2 Cor
5.17).' But the Fathers, perceiving their craft and the cunning of their irreligion,
were forced to express more distinctly the sense of the words `from God.'
Accordingly, they wrote `from the essence of God,' in order that `from God'
might not be considered common and equal in the Son and in things originate,
but that all others might be acknowledged as creatures, and the Word alone as
from the Father.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 42
“Again, when the Bishops said that the Word must be described as the True
Power and Image of the Father, in all things exact and like the Father, and as
unalterable, and as always, and as in Him without division (for never was the
Word not, but He was always, existing everlastingly with the Father, as the
radiance of light), Eusebius and his fellows endured indeed, as not daring to
contradict, being put to shame by the arguments which were urged against
them; but withal they were caught whispering to each other and winking with
their eyes, that `like,' and `always,' and `power,' and `in Him,' were, as before,
common to us and the Son, and that it was no difficulty to agree to these. As to
`like,' they said that it is written of us, `Man is the image and glory of God (1
Cor 11.7):' `always,' that it was written, `For we which live are alway (2 Cor
4.11):' `in Him,' `In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts
17.18):'`unalterable,' that it is written, `Nothing shall separate us from the love
of Christ (Rom 8.35):' as to `power,' that the caterpillar and the locust are called
`power' and `great power (Joel 2.25),' and that it is often said of the people, for
instance, `All the power of the Lord came out of the land of Egypt (Ex 12.41):'
and there are others also, heavenly ones, for Scripture says, `The Lord of
powers is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge (Psalm 96.7).' ... But the
Bishops discerning in this too their dissimulation, and whereas it is written,
`Deceit is in the heart of the irreligious that imagine evil (Prov 12.20),' were
again compelled on their part to collect the sense of the Scriptures, and to re-say
and re-write what they had said before, more distinctly still, namely, that the
Son is `one in essence' with the Father: by way of signifying, that the Son was
from the Father, and not merely like, but the same in likeness, and of shewing
that the Son's likeness and unalterableness was different from such copy of the
same as is ascribed to us, which we acquire from virtue on the ground of
observance of the commandments. For bodies which are like each other may be
separated and become at distances from each other, as are human sons
relatively to their parents (as it is written concerning Adam and Seth, who was
begotten of him that he was like him after his own pattern (Gen 5.3)); but since
the generation of the Son from the Father is not according to the nature of men,
and not only like, but also inseparable from the essence of the Father, and He
and the Father are one, as He has said Himself, and the Word is ever in the
Father and the Father in the Word, as the radiance stands towards the light (for
this the phrase itself indicates), therefore the Council, as understanding this,
suitably wrote `one in essence,' that they might both defeat the perverseness of
the heretics, and shew that the Word was other than originated things. For,
after thus writing, they at once added, `But they who say that the Son of God is
from nothing, or created, or alterable, or a work, or from other essence, these
the Holy Catholic Church anathematizes.'”
Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch had traditionally exercised jurisdiction outside of
their respective cities: Rome over southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, for
instance; and Alexandria over Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis. (The sphere of
Antioch appears to have been Coele-Syria and Cyprus.) These churches, with
special privileges outside their provinces, exercising direct control to the
exclusion of the ordinary power of the metropolitans bishops, came to be termed
patriarchates.
The council also gave special honor to Jerusalem, without
prejudicing the privileges of Caesarea. This was the first step toward the
creation of a patriarchate of Jerusalem in the next century, at Ephesus (431).
CHURCH HISTORY - 43
The bishop of Alexandria was given the privilege of announcing the date of
Easter. This to guard against disagreement over the date. Announced in the
annual “festal letter.” The date was to be calculated according to the custom in
Egypt, Palestine and the West. The churches in Asia Minor, prior to this decision,
had held Easter on Passover. Alexandria may have been selected because of its
superior astronomers.
As a 40-day period (six weeks) Lent was mentioned in canon 5. Canon 20
forbade kneeling on Sundays or during Pentecost, since these are times of joy.
327 Eusebius of Caesarea, in response to a letter from the emperor’s sister
Constantia asking for a picture of Christ, took it for granted that only pagan
artists would make such a representation. However, in his Ecclesiastical History
(Book 7, Ch 18), he reported the existence of a miracle-working statue, thought
to be of Christ, in Caesarea Philippi. That was the home city of the woman
healed of an issue of blood (Matt 9.20 and following). The statue depicted this
woman (known to tradition as St. Berenice) stretching out her hand to Jesus.
Eusebius also stated, without condemnation, that the painted likenesses of Peter,
Paul, and Christ had also been made, "according to the habit of the Gentiles."
Also of note: Eusebius saw the conversion of Constantine as an act of God to
further the spread of the good news.
In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius listed the New Testament books. The
genuine books:
the four gospels, the epistles of Paul, 1 John, 1 Peter, and
Revelation. Disputed: James, Jude, 2 and 3 John, and 2 Peter. He also
mentioned Hebrews as a book “with which those of the Hebrews who have
received Christ are particularly delighted.”
Eusebius’ theology was influenced by Origen. This was somewhat typical of the
Conservatives or Semi-Arians in the East during the Arian conflict. Although
defended as orthodox by Socrates in the fifth century, Eusebius’ theological
views are questionable. In De Synodis, Athanasius wrote, “Eusebius of Caesarea
in Palestine, in a letter to Euphration the bishop, did not scruple to say plainly
that Christ was not true God.” He had been condemned by the synod of Antioch
in 325, initially supported the Arians, and then, though firmly adhering to
orthodoxy after Nicea, he was willing to facilitate Constantine's wish to tolerate
the return of the Arians to communion with little evidence their position had
changed. Eusebius was eventually condemned at the second council of Nicae in
787, being described as double-minded.
Using the same basic methodology as Julius Africanus had employed (see 222
above), Eusebius arrived at the date 5228 anno mundi (year of the world) for the
beginning of Christ’s public ministry. By this reckoning, then, 1 A.D. is 5201
anno mundi. Eusebius’ Chronikoi Kanones was popularized in the West through
Jerome’s Latin translation, known to the Venerable Bede.
328 Athanasius succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria. He served initially
through 335, when he was dislodged by the maneuverings of Eusebius of
Nicomedia on behalf of Arius.
CHURCH HISTORY - 44
Athanasius interpreted the effect of the incarnation
human nature: it is an ideal each of us participates in
incarnation, Christ infuses fallen human nature with
might seem natural, therefore, that all men would be
draw this conclusion, but instead held that only those
Holy Spirit participate in the divine nature.
using a Platonic view of
as a human being. By his
his divinity. Although it
saved, Athanasius did not
who are in union with the
In his Statement of Faith, Athanasius wrote: “But the Holy Spirit, being that
which proceeds from the Father, is ever in the hands of the Father Who sends
and of the Son Who conveys Him, by Whose means he filled all things. The
Father, possessing His existence from Himself, begat the Son ... as a river from a
well and as a branch from a root, and as brightness from a light ... and did not
create Him.”
It has been stated that the “essential difference between Athanasius and the
‘Conservatives’ [also called Semiarians – the Easterners who were largely
orthodox but wished to replace the Nicene formula] ... [was that Athanasius
understood] the insufficiency of the formulae of the third century to meet the
problem of the fourth. (Introduction to Athanasius’ De Sententia Dionysii)”
328 Eustathius, recently elected bishop of Antioch, was deposed by an Arian
council which met in that city. The Arians hired a woman to say Eustathius had
sired her child. Eustathius had been an able defender of orthodoxy. But he had
reportedly spoken disrespectfully of the emperor’s mother, Helena, in 326 when
she was on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Eustathius was a noted critic of Origen.
329 Birth of St. Basil the Great.
330 Founding of the city of Constantinople. The University of Constantinople was
founded at about the same time and educated students until 1453.
Also about this year, Arius returned from exile, after Eusebius of Nicomedia
interceded for him with the emperor. Eusebius then wrote to Athanasius asking
him to restore Arius to communion, but Athanasius refused.
Old Saint Peter’s Basilica was dedicated by Constantine. It was located over the
traditional burial site of Saint Peter the Apostle in Rome on Vatican Hill.
Death of Iamblichus (250-330) founder of the Syrian school of Neoplatonism.
Iamblichus' modified Ploninus' philosophy in the direction of a syncretic religion,
which may have provided the framework for Justinian's religious views.
332 The Tervingi, a Gothic tribe, were defeated in battle and became clients to
the Romans.
335 A mosaic image of Christ, depicted without a beard, was set in a floor in
Hinton St. Mary in Dorset, England.
335 The Despositio Martyrum, a calendar of Roman martyrs, had been written by
this year.
CHURCH HISTORY - 45
335 According to Eusebius of Caesarea in his biography of Constantine, the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated in this year. On the
way to the dedication, about 150 bishops met in council in Tyre. Eusebius of
Caesarea presided. Among the charges against Athanasius was that he had had
Arsenius, the Meletian bishop of Hypsele, murdered, then procured one of his
hands for magical purposes. Athanasius produced Arsenius at the council and
refuted this charge, Arsenius being alive with two hands intact. The party of
Eusebius of Nicomedia prevailed, however, and Athanasius fled to
Constantinople. The council passed a resolution deposing Athanasius.
At the dedication in Jerusalem, Arius was received into communion on the
strength of a confession of faith he had presented to Constantine previously.
Word arrived that the emperor wanted to discuss the events at Tyre, and
Eusebius of Caesarea accompanied the Arian bishops to make a further charge
against Athanasius. He was accused of threatening to starve Constantinople by
stopping the grain shipments from Egypt. Athanasius was banished to Treveri,
starting his journey around February of 336.
That same winter there was a council at Constantinople which deposed Marcellus
of Ancyra for heresy and nominated a Basil to the see of Ancyra. Marcellus had
been a critic of the theological tradition of Origen, which had emphasized the
independence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Marcellus was accused of
teaching that the distinction between the Father and the Son was only temporary
- the Logos will eventually merge with the Father. The excuse for deposing
Marcellus was his failure to attend the ceremonies reconciling Arius at the
dedication ceremony in Jerusalem the previous year.
335 A Palestinian named Epiphanios (see 375) founded a monastery at
Eleutheropolis in Judea.
336 The first notice of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ occurred in a Roman
almanac (the Chronographer of 354, or Philocalian Calendar), which indicates
that the festival was observed by the church in Rome by the year 336. In one of
his letters, John Chrysostom mentioned that Julius I (337-52), bishop of Rome,
had the Imperial records of the Roman census examined and confirmed the
observance of Christ’s birthday on December 25. See Hippolytus, year 198. (It
is interesting that in the East Jesus’ birth, the adoration of the Magi, and baptism
were all observed on January 6. It is possible that Julius’ records review was
conducted to bring the East into conformity with Rome.)
Death of Arius. He died suddenly on the day before he was to be received back
into communion with the church. The aged bishop Alexander had prayed that
God would take either him or Arius away before such an outrage to the faith
could be perpetrated. He died attending to a call of nature, apparently of heart
failure. There is the possibility that he was poisoned.
During this year, Eusebius of Caesarea wrote two works accusing Marcellus,
bishop of Ancyra, of Sabellianism.
CHURCH HISTORY - 46
337 Constantine was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, and died, May 22.
Constantine delayed baptism until the point of death as was common in the
fourth century, but considered himself a Christian from 313. Upon Constantine’s
death, he was succeeded by his three sons: Constantine II in the West,
Constans in Italy and North Africa, and Constantius in the East. In 340,
Constantine II was killed during a war against Constans. Constantius tended to
be guided by Eusebius of Nicomedia in religious matters, while Constans
supported the Western bishops, who were largely orthodox.
On June 17, 337, Constantine II sent a letter to the people and clergy of
Alexandria, announcing that Athanasius was being restored as their bishop. He
stated that this had been Constantine’s intention, and that Athanasius had been
removed to Treveri for his protection.
337 Constantius became emperor in the East. Served through 361. Athananius
returned from exile in November, and stayed for 1 year and 4 to 5 months.
Eusebius of Nicomedia was translated to Constantinople at about this time.
Eusebius of Constantinople presented the case to Constantius that Athanasius
and other orthodox bishops, (and Marcellus of Ancyra) had been restored to their
sees uncanonically.
Eusebius’ position was not unpopular with Eastern
conservatives who had begun to see a danger in state determination of
ecclesiastical affairs.
338 In order to test the Western reaction, Eusebius of Constantinople sent two
deacons to Julius, bishop of Rome, to lay charges against the deposed bishops
(Athanasius, Marcellus, etc.). They also argued that Pistus, whom the Eusebians
had sent to Alexandria, should be recognized as bishop there.
338/9 Athanasius composed a letter dealing with the charges against him and
sent it with two presbyters to Rome. The Eusebian deacons then asked Julius to
call a council to settle the issue. Julius agreed to this. He in turn sent two
presbyters to Antioch to invite the Eusebians to a council.
339 In January, the Eusebians met in council in Antioch, where Constantius was
spending the winter. They repeated their deposition of Athanasius and appointed
Gregory the Cappadocian, not Pistus, to succeed him. The Roman presbyters
arrived after this council, and were detained until 340.
339 In March, Athanasius fled Alexandria, the Eusebian party having again
succeeded in having his deposed. Athanasius visited Rome, accompanied by
Egyptian monks. Thus monasticism began in the West.
340 Julius, bishop of Rome (337-352) welcomed Athanasius and Marcellus to
communion: The presbyters whom Julius had sent to Antioch returned in the
spring with an acrimonious note from the Eusebians. Julius convoked a council
of Italian bishops. The council pronounced Athanasius innocent of all charges.
All other exiles were restored by this synod, including Marcellus, who was simply
required to affirm the Roman baptismal creed. Julius then sent a letter to the
Eusebians in the name of the synod. Julius pointed out that, without his consent,
no decision could be considered universal. He based his claim to be consulted on
matters dealing with the see of Alexandria on the precedent of Dionysius (see
259).
CHURCH HISTORY - 47
As the exiles had been excommunicated by Greek synods, the East was miffed.
340 Death of Eusebius of Caesarea. Eusebius was succeeded by Acacius, who
was to become the leader of the Arians in the East. In fact, the Arians were
sometimes called Acacians.
340 Birth of St. Ambrose.
341 Eusebius of Constantinople, an Arian (see year 318, above) consecrated
Ulfila as bishop to the Goths. Ulfila held to the Nicene creed until the council of
Rimini (Arminium) in 359.
341 In the summer, Eastern bishops met in synod at the occasion of a cathedral
(Constantine’s Golden Church) dedication in Antioch. Julius’ letter from the
recent council at Rome was considered. The Eastern bishops denied that Rome
had a right to judge decisions reached in the East.
The assembled Eastern bishops drew up three creeds. The first had a preface
denying that they were followers of Arius. This creed does not seem to have
been widely favored.
The second creed is referred to as the “Creed of the Dedication” or the “Lucianic”
creed, alleged to have been written by Lucian the Martyr (see 312). The Lucianic
creed omitted the homoousion, but maintained the exact likeness of the Son to
the Father’s essence. Its anathemas permitted an Arian interpretation. Against
Marcellus, it insisted on the generation of the Son before time. The Lucianic
creed (as given by Athanasius in his de Synodis):
“We believe, conformably to the evangelical and apostolical tradition, in One
God, the Father Almighty, the Framer, and Maker, and Provider of the Universe,
from whom are all things.
“And in One Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, Only-begotten God (John 1.18), by
whom are all things, who was begotten before all ages from the Father, God
from God, whole from whole, sole from sole, perfect from perfect, King from
King, Lord from Lord, Living Word, Living Wisdom, true Light, Way, Truth,
Resurrection, Shepherd, Door, both unalterable and unchangeable; exact Image
of the Godhead, Essence, Will, Power and Glory of the Father; the first born of
every creature, who was in the beginning with God, God the Word, as it is
written in the Gospel, `and the Word was God' (John 1.1); by whom all things
were made, and in whom all things consist; who in the last days descended from
above, and was born of a Virgin according to the Scriptures, and was made Man,
Mediator between God and man, and Apostle of our faith, and Prince of life, as
He says, `I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent Me' (John 6.38); who suffered for us and rose again on the third day,
and ascended into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Father, and is
coming again with glory and power, to judge quick and dead.
CHURCH HISTORY - 48
“And in the Holy Ghost, who is given to those who believe for comfort, and
sanctification, and initiation, as also our Lord Jesus Christ enjoined His disciples,
saying, `Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Ghost' (Matt. 28.19); namely of a Father who is truly
Father, and a Son who is truly Son, and of the Holy Ghost who is truly Holy
Ghost, the names not being given without meaning or effect, but denoting
accurately the peculiar subsistence, rank, and glory of each that is named, so
that they are three in subsistence, and in agreement one.
“Holding then this faith, and holding it in the presence of God and Christ, from
beginning to end, we anathematize every heretical heterodoxy. And if any
teaches, beside the sound and right faith of the Scriptures, that time, or season,
or age, either is or has been before the generation of the Son, be he anathema.
Or if any one says, that the Son is a creature as one of the creatures, or an
offspring as one of the offsprings, or a work as one of the works, and not the
aforesaid articles one after another, as the divine Scriptures have delivered, or if
he teaches or preaches beside what we received, be he anathema. For all that
has been delivered in the divine Scriptures, whether by Prophets or Apostles, do
we truly and reverentially both believe and follow.”
The third creed, that of Theophronius of Tyana, added to the second creed’s
insistence on the Son’s pretemporal generation, his hypostatic pre-existence and
eternal kingdom.
It had an anathema against Marcellus and all who
communicated with him or his supporters (directed at the Italians).
A fourth creed was drawn up several months after the council had closed, in the
autumn of 341. Julius had referred Athanasius’ case to Constans, who requested
Constantius send oriental bishops to state their case against Athanasius. A few
bishops therefore reassembled to send a deputation to Constans. The creed they
drew up became the basis for subsequent Arian confessions. Marcellus was not
mentioned, but the eternal reign of Christ was affirmed. The Nicene anathemas
were modified to attack Marcellian and admit Arian interpretations of the divine
Sonship. The fourth creed, as given by Athanasius in de Synodis:
“We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator and Maker of all things;
from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. (Eph. 3.15.)
“And in His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all ages was
begotten from the Father, God from God, Light from Light, by whom all things
were made in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, being Word,
and Wisdom, and Power, and Life, and True Light; who in the last days was
made man for us, and was born of the Holy Virgin; who was crucified, and dead,
and buried, and rose again from the dead the third day, and was taken up into
heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Father; and is coming at the
consummation of the age, to judge quick and dead, and to render to every one
according to his works; whose Kingdom endures indissolubly into the infinite
ages; for He shall be seated on the right hand of the Father, not only in this age
but in that which is to come.
“And in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete; which, having promised to the
Apostles, He sent forth after His ascension into heaven, to teach them and to
remind of all things; through whom also shall be sanctified the souls of those
who sincerely believe in Him.
CHURCH HISTORY - 49
“But those who say, that the Son was from nothing, or from other subsistence
and not from God, and, there was time when He was not, the Catholic Church
regards as aliens.”
In the short run, the Arians made use of the fourth creed (see Sirmium, 351).
The Semi-Arians, or Eastern Conservatives, increasingly relied on the Lucianic
creed.
One might have thought that the phrase ‘before all ages was begotten’ would
militate against the Arian position that the Son was created. Yet, Eusebius of
Nicomedia was able to hold that the Son was begotten before time, yet not coeternal with the Father. These creeds admitted of an orthodox interpretation, as
Hilary noted in his De Synodis, but were an insufficient filter against Arianism.
342 The Eastern bishops from the dedication council of Antioch were refused an
audience with Constans. Apparently, Constans had already decided that the way
to deal with the situation was with a council, to meet in Sardica.
342 A council at Gangra in Asia Minor disapproved of monks who abandoned
church attendance.
342 Eusebius of Constantinople died. Two rivals, Paul and Macedonius, vied for
his see. The Eusebian party was temporarily leaderless.
342 The Persians began persecuting Christians, and St. Aphraat (290-370) fled
to Edessa. Aphraat later preached the Orthodox faith to the Arian emperor
Valens.
342/3 The council of Sardica.
The Easterners were outnumbered by the
Westerners. A dispute arose immediately over the admission of the deposed
bishops. The Eastern bishops withdrew to Philipopolis, then condemned Hosius,
Julius, Athanasius, etc., and re-issued the fourth creed from Antioch (341) with
additional anathemas against Marcellus.
The Western bishops asserted the right of Julius of Rome to hear appeals from
bishops under censure in their own provinces. They also published a naive
theological tract to cover their admission of Marcellus, to Athanasius’ regret. All
charges against the exiles were dismissed, and they also denounced Valens of
Mursa and Ursacius of Singidunum (among others), who were attending the
Eastern synod, and who had been companions to Arius during his exile.
In the wake of Sardica, Constantius harshly persecuted the Nicene bishops in the
East.
343 Photinus, bishop of Sirmium in Pannonia, began teaching his heresy. He
denied the existence of the Son prior to the incarnation, claiming that the Son
and the Logos are distinct. He viewed Christ's divinity as something he attained
through moral growth, similar to the view of Paul of Samosata.
343 Beginning of an extended persecution of Christians in the Persian empire. It
continued for about 50 years.
CHURCH HISTORY - 50
344 Constans sent two bishops from the Sardican majority to Constantius to
urge him to restore the deposed bishops. Stephen, bishop of Antioch, attempted
to discredit the envoys, but his deception was found out. (He had a naked
prostitute introduced into one of the envoys’ rooms, but she, seeing a bishop
asleep, refused to attempt to seduce him, and accused Stephen.) A council was
summoned, which deposed Stephen.
The council then sent an enlarged version of the fourth creed from the dedication
council of 341 to Italy by way of a deputation. This is sometimes referred to as
the “Lengthy Creed.” The council also mildly condemned certain Arian phrases,
but condemned Marcellus and Photinus, and criticized the Nicene creed for giving
support to their heresies. Photinus was condemned by the council of Sirmium in
351. The fourth (revised) article of the creed, from Athanasius’ de Synodis:
“But those who say, (1) that the Son was from nothing, or from other
subsistence and not from God; (2) and that there was a time or age when He
was not, the Catholic and Holy Church regards as aliens. Likewise those who
say, (3) that there are three Gods: (4) or that Christ is not God; (5) or that
before the ages He was neither Christ nor Son of God; (6) or that Father and
Son, or Holy Ghost, are the same; (7) or that the Son is Ingenerate; or that the
Father begat the Son, not by choice or will; the Holy and Catholic Church
anathematizes.”
Understanding that his brother considered it a cause for war, Constantius
discontinued his persecution of the Nicene bishops.
345 Delegates from the last council of Antioch attended a council held in Milan.
The Milanese synod agreed to condemn Photinus, but not Marcellus. On being
asked to condemn Arianism outright, the Eastern delegates retired in anger.
Valens and Ursacius, in danger of having their Sardican depositions enforced,
submitted.
They admitted that the charges against Athanasius had been
invented.
346 Under strong pressure from Constans, Athanasius was readmitted to his see
in Alexandria, while the West dropped the cause of Marcellus.
347 Birth of St. John Chrysostom.
347 Two monks living in Antioch, Flavian and Diodore, promoted the practice of
singing the Psalms with short responsory choruses: the first Christian litanies.
347/8 Ulfila, the translator of the Bible into Gothic (this was the first time
Christians translated the Scriptures for a people living outside the Roman
empire), left the Gothic lands when the ruler of the Tervingi, a Gothic tribe,
began a persecution of Christians. Ulfila brought a large body of Christians into
the empire with him, settling near Nicopolis (Bulgaria) on land donated by the
emperor Constantius.
350 Frumentius became bishop of Axum in Ethiopia. He was ordained by
Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria. Frumentius was the author of the Life of St.
Anthony. Christianity also spread eastward, as is attested by the fact that
Theophilus of Soccotra in the Gulf of Adem became bishop to the Christians of
southern Arabia in about this year.
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350 At around this time Codex Sinaiticus (S, or Aleph) was written. It consists of
the Septuagint (without 2-3 Maccabees, the Psalms of Solomon, or Psalm 151)
plus the 27 New Testament books, plus Barnabas and Hermas (though it is
missing Hermas 31:7 to the end of the book). Sinaiticus is of the Alexandrian
family, but is regarded as transmitting a Western text.
Codex Vaticanus (B) also dates from this era. It includes the LXX without 1-4
Maccabees, Psalm 151, or the Psalms of Solomon. Gen 1-46:28 and Psalm
105:27-137:6 are missing. It also includes the 27 New Testament books, except
for 1 Timothy through Philemon, and Hebrews 9:14 through the end. As with
Sinaiticus, it is an Alexandrian document.
Before approximately this time, most books were in the form of scrolls. Scrolls
had severe limitations. For instance, a book the size of Matthew’s gospel would
fit on a scroll. A codex, formed by folding sheets of papyrus or vellumin the
middle and sewing them together at the spine, could contain much larger works.
Codices also eased the task of locating a given passage.
The earliest extant Old Latin manuscript - designated as "a" - dates from this
periiod also.
350 Constans, emperor in the West, murdered by Magnentius. Constantius was
sole emperor by the fall of 351.
350 Around this time (348-50) Cyril of Jerusalem (elected bishop in 350)
produced the Mystagogical Catecheses for new believers. He described the
church service as follows:
“Then having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual hymns, we call upon the
merciful God to send forth his Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before him: that
he may make the bread the body of Christ, and the wine the blood of Christ, for
whatever the Holy Spirit has touched is sanctified and changed. Then after the
spiritual sacrifice is perfected, the bloodless service upon that sacrifice of
propitiation, we entreat God for the common peace of the Church, for the
tranquility of the world, for kings, for soldiers and allies, for the sick, for the
afflicted; and in a word for all who stand in need of succour we all supplicate and
offer this sacrifice. Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep
before us, first patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, that at their prayers and
intervention God would receive our petition. Afterwards, also on behalf of the
holy fathers and bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all
who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very
great advantage to the souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy
and most awful sacrifice is presented.”
Cyril’s Old Testament canon was the Hebrew Old Testament plus Baruch and “the
Epistle” – now included as the last chapter of Baruch. However, he also quoted
from Wisdom and Sirach as though he considered them Scripture. His New
Testament list omits only Revelation, and includes no books not now accepted.
CHURCH HISTORY - 52
Cyril was Orthodox, as is clear from his teachings on the Trinity in the
Mystagogical Catecheses. He was temporarily deposed through the intrigues of
Acacius (the Arian bishop of Caesarea) around the year 357, but seems to have
been reinstated by the council of Seleucia in 359. Cyril attended the Council of
Constantinople in 381, recognized as one of the leaders of the orthodox.
351 Battle of Mursa (the see of Valens). Constantius defeated Magnentius.
351First Council of Sirmium. Sirmium was an important border town in Illyria,
near the Danube. As such, the emperor was often in residence there to conduct
border wars. This council ousted Photinus, bishop of Sirmium. In opposition to
Photinus’ doctrine that the Son of God did not exist before the Son of the Virgin,
the council asserted that the Old Testament theophanies were appearances of
the pre-incarnate Christ. Gen 19.24 was mentioned in particular – the Lord (the
Son) rained down fire from the Lord (the Father). The council also issued a
version of the fourth creed from Antioch (341).
352Liberius (bishop from 352-366) became bishop of Rome.
353Hilary became bishop of Poitiers. He violently denounced people who held
that Mary had not remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth, and maintained that
Jesus’ brothers were Joseph’s children by an earlier marriage.
353 Constantius felt that the way to oust the Nicene bishops, Athanasius in
particular, was to have the Western bishops, historically Athanasius’ supporters,
condemn him. At Constantius’ wish, a council was held at Arles to consider the
old charges against Athanasius. The council was run by the Arian bishop of
Arles, Saturninus. Athanasius was found guilty by nearly all present. However,
Constantius was too busy with a war on the frontiers of Gaul to proceed further
against Athanasius at that time.
354 St. Augustine was born in Thagaste, Numidia (now Algeria).
354/5 Constantius had a council meet at Milan to condemn Athanasius. Three
bishops who disagreed with Constantius’ desired verdict of guilty were sent into
exile.
In this year, Hilary of Poitiers began to induce bishops of Gaul to withdraw from
communion with Saturninus of Arles, and with Ursacius and Valens, the disciples
of Arius who were now influential with Constantius. Hilary also wrote a letter to
Constantius protesting that Athanasius had been found innocent by councils long
before, and the Arians guilty – so it was egregious for the condemned to be
allowed to intrigue against the innocent.
356Hilary of Poitiers exiled to Asia after being found guilty of some unspecified
misconduct by a council at Beziers, presided over by Saturninus. Many Western
bishops who refused to condemn Athanasius were sent East during this period.
Athanasius was again removed from his see in Alexandria.
Arian, became bishop of Alexandria.
George, a radical
CHURCH HISTORY - 53
356 The emperor Constantius sent a letter to the rulers of Axum (Ethiopia)
requesting they replace bishop Frumentius with an Arian. Natives of Tyre,
Frumentius and his brother Aedesius had been shipwrecked off the Ethiopian
coast. When rescued, they became slaves of the king of Axum, and used their
respective positions as treasurer and cup-bearer to spread the gospel. When the
king died, the brothers were freed. Aedesius returned to Tyre and became a
priest. Frumentius traveled to Egypt, seeking a bishop for the Ethiopians; the
patriarch there, Athanasius, appointed Frumentius himself their bishop.
Frumentius returned to Ethiopia and labored for Christ among that people. He
died around 370.
357Liberius of Rome was also exiled at about this time (the dates are somewhat
uncertain - 355 is another possibility). In a conference with Constantius, Liberius
refused to condemn Athanasius, and was exiled to Thrace. Liberius returned to
Rome in 358 when Basil of Ancyra gained Constantius’ confidence, temporarily
ousting Valens. Liberius subscribed to a statement condemning Athanasius, but
under duress. Athanasius wrote of Liberius’ fall with sympathy and compassion
(History of the Arians, Part V).
After Constantius banished Liberius, an archdeacon became Felix II, bishop of
Rome. Upon Liberius’ return, Felix was forced to remove to Porto. At one time,
Felix was listed as a Roman Catholic saint. His feast day fell on July 29.
357 Under the influence of Valens, the Second Council of Sirmium was held, at
which Hosius and Potamius composed their blasphemy. This creed insisted upon
the unique Godhead of the Father and deplored both the homoousion
(Athanasius and the West) and homoiousion (Basil of Ancyra and most of the
East), along with all discussion of essence, as unscriptural. The “blasphemy,”
from Athanasius’ de Synodis:
The Blasphemy of Hosius: “Whereas it seemed good that there should be some
discussion concerning faith, all points were carefully investigated and discussed
at Sirmium in the presence of Valens, and Ursacius, and Germinius, and the rest.
It is held for certain that there is one God, the Father Almighty, as also is
preached in all the world.
“And His One Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, generated from Him
before the ages; and that we may not speak of two Gods, since the Lord Himself
has said, `I go to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God' (John
20.17). On this account He is God of all, as also the Apostle taught: `Is He God
of the Jews only, is He not also of the Gentiles? yea of the Gentiles also: since
there is one God who shall justify the circumcision from faith, and the
uncircumcision through faith' (Rom. 3.29, 30); and every thing else agrees, and
has no ambiguity.
CHURCH HISTORY - 54
“But since many persons are disturbed by questions concerning what is called in
Latin `Substantia,' but in Greek `ousia,' that is, to make it understood more
exactly, as to `Coessential,' or what is called, `Like-in-Essence,' there ought to
be no mention of any of these at all, nor exposition of them in the Church, for
this reason and for this consideration, that in divine Scripture nothing is written
about them, and that they are above men's knowledge and above men's
understanding; and because no one can declare the Son's generation, as it is
written, `Who shall declare His generation' (Is. 53. 8)? for it is plain that the
Father only knows how He generated the Son, and again the Son how He has
been generated by the Father. And to none can it be a question that the Father is
greater for no one can doubt that the Father is greater in honour and dignity and
Godhead, and in the very name of Father, the Son Himself testifying, `The
Father that sent Me is greater than I' (John 10.29, 14.28). And no one is
ignorant, that it is Catholic doctrine, that there are two Persons of Father and
Son, and that the Father is greater, and the Son subordinated to the Father
together with all things which the Father has subordinated to Him, and that the
Father has no beginning, and is invisible, and immortal, and impassible; but that
the Son has been generated from the Father, God from God, Light from Light,
and that His origin, as aforesaid, no one knows, but the Father only. And that the
Son Himself and our Lord and God, took flesh, that is, a body, that is, man, from
Mary the Virgin, as the Angel preached beforehand; and as all the Scriptures
teach, and especially the Apostle himself, the doctor of the Gentiles, Christ took
man of Mary the Virgin, through which He has suffered. And the whole faith is
summed up, and secured in this, that a Trinity should ever be preserved, as we
read in the Gospel, `Go ye and baptize all the nations in the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost' (Matt. 28.19). And entire and perfect is
the number of the Trinity; but the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, sent forth through
the Son, came according to the promise, that He might teach and sanctify the
Apostles and all believers.”
The blasphemy was too shocking for most Eastern bishops. In the view of some
historians, this council began the collapse of the Arian cause.
357 Eudoxius became bishop of Antioch.
357 The controversy over the place of the Holy Spirit in the Godhead reached
center stage. Macedonius of Constantinople led a group opposed to the divinity
of the Spirit. These became known as Pneumatomachi, or Spirit Fighters.
Athanasius wrote Letters to Serapion, in which he argues for the Spirit’s divinity.
358 The Sirmium blasphemy was hailed by the Homoeans, assembled at Antioch.
Under the pretext that Western bishops had denounced the homoousion and the
homoiousion at Syrmium, Eudoxius advocated the anomoios (dissimilar) theology
of the layman Aetius: Jesus was not divine at all. Those who advocated this
view are referred to as Anomoeans.
358 Constantius brought Liberius of Rome from exile in Thrace to Sirmium.
Liberius subscribed to one of the dedication creeds of 341, and was allowed to
return to Rome.
CHURCH HISTORY - 55
359 On report of the strong influence of Aetius in Antioch, Basil of Ancyra held a
council with local bishops and drafted a synodical letter which asserted the
essential likeness (homoion kat’ ousion) of the Son to the Father. He proceeded
to the court of Sirmium, gained the Constantius’ support, and the approval of the
formula at a council.
CHURCH HISTORY - 56
The anathemas of the council of Antioch (from Hilary, De Synodis): “(1) If any
one hearing that the Son is the image of the invisible God, says that the image of
God is the same as the invisible God, as though refusing to confess that He is
truly Son: let him be anathema. (2) And if any one hearing the Son say, As the
Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himsel
(John 5.26), shall say that He who has received life from the Father, and who
also declares, I live by the Father (John 6.57), is the same as He who gave life:
let him be anathema. (3) And if any one hearing that the Only-begotten Son is
like the invisible God, denies that the Son who is the image of the invisible God
(whose image is understood to include essence) is Son in essence, as though
denying His true Sonship: let him be anathema. (4) And if any one hearing this
text, For as the Father hath life in Himself so also He hath given to the Son to
have life in Himsef (John 5.26); denies that the Son is like the Father even in
essence, though He testifies that it is even as He has said; let him be anathema.
For it is plain that since the life which is understood to exist in the Father
signifies substance, and the life of the Only-begotten which was begotten of the
Father is also understood to mean substance or essence, He there signifies a
likeness of essence to essence. (5) If any one hearing the words formed or
created it and begat me spoken by the same lips (Prov 8.22), refuses to
understand this begat me of likeness of essence, but says that begat me and
formed me are the same: as if to deny that the perfect Son of God was here
signified as Son under two different expressions, as Wisdom has given Us to
piously understand, and asserts that formed me and begat me only imply
formation and not sonship: let him be anathema. (6) And if any one grant the
Son only a likeness of activity, but rob Him of the likeness of essence which is
the corner-stone of our faith, in spite of the fact that the Son Himself reveals His
essential likeness with the Father in the words, For as the Father hath life in
Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, as well as His
likeness in activity by teaching us that What things soever the Father doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise (John 5.19), such a man robs himself of the
knowledge of eternal life which is in the Father and the Son, and let him be
anathema. (7) And if any one professing that he believes that there is a Father
and a Son, says that the Father is Father of an essence unlike Himself but of
similar activity; for speaking profane and novel words against the essence of the
Son and nullifying His true divine Sonship, let him be anathema. (8) And if any
one understanding that the Son is like in essence to Him whose Son He is
admitted to be, says that the Son is the same as the Father, or part of the
Father, or that it is through an emanation or any such passion as is necessary for
the procreation of corporeal children that the incorporeal Son draws His life from
the incorporeal Father: let him be anathema. (9) And if any one, because the
Father is never admitted to be the Son and the Son is never admitted to be the
Father, when he says that the Son is other than the Father (because the Father
is one Person and the Son another, inasmuch as it is said, There is another that
beareth witness of Me, even the father who sent Me (John 5.32) ), does in
anxiety for the distinct personal qualities of the Father and the Son which in the
Church must be piously understood to exist, fear that the Son and the Father
may sometimes be admitted to be the same Person, and therefore denies that
the Son is like in essence to the Father: let him be anathema. (10) And if any
one admits that God became Father of the Only-begotten Son at any point in
time and not that the Only-begotten Son came into existence without passion
beyond all times and beyond all human calculation: for contravening the teaching
of the Gospel which scorned any interval of times between the being of the
Father and the Son and faithfully has instructed us that In the beginning was the
CHURCH HISTORY - 57
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1.1), let him be
anathema. (11) And if any one says that the Father is older in times than His
Only-begotten Son, and that the Son is younger than the Father: let him be
anathema. (12) And if any one attributes the timeless substance (i.e. Person) of
the Only-begotten Son derived from the Father to the unborn essence of God, as
though calling the Father Son: let him be anathema.”
Basil supported the homoiousion (of like nature) party, which constituted the
majority of Eastern churchmen.
They are sometimes referred to as the
Conservative party, and sometimes as Semiarians.
These bishops were
concerned that the Nicene homoousion led to Sabellianism. They saw the
insertion of the iota as a means of avoiding a theological confusion of the
persons in the Godhead.
This was Constantius’ theology at the moment as well. In a letter sent to the
clergy at Antioch, after condemning their bishop Eudoxius, Constantius wrote:
“Recall to your recollection the words of which we made use, when we first made
a declaration of our belief; for we confessed that our Savior is the Son of God,
and of like substance with the Father.
Valens of Mursa endorsed the Anomoean theology. He sought a formula to
replace the Nicene homoousion, which would permit this dissimilarity. He did so
by advocating the Homoean view, that the Son is like (homoion) the Father, but
not in essence. This likeness, not being essential, would be in Valens’ view an
essential dissimilarity
359 For about a year, Valens and Basil of Ancyra had vied for influence with the
emperor. Valens pushed for his formula, which stated that the Son is like the
Father without qualification, while Basil argued for the homoousion position. The
two reached a compromise (essentially, Basil buckled): at the Third Council of
Sirmium a creed was drafted, known as the dated creed from the fact that it
bears the date May 23, 359. The creed was written in preparation for the council
to be held at Rimini and Seleucia, as a trial solution. It held that the Son is like
the Father, according to the scripture, but prohibited the use of the term ousia.
This statement did not specify that the likeness is essential, which is the
maneuvering room Valens desired; but it also didn’t claim that the Son was
unlike the Father – a position Constantius would not agree with. The dated
creed, according to Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History:
“The catholic faith was expounded at Sirmium in presence of our lord
Constantius, in the consulate of the most illustrious Flavius Eusebius, and
Hypatius, on the twenty-third of May.
CHURCH HISTORY - 58
“We believe in one only and true God, the Father Almighty, the Creator and
Framer of all things: and in one only-begotten Son of God, before all ages,
before all beginning, before all conceivable time, and before all comprehensible
thought, begotten without passion: by whom the ages were framed, and all
things made: who was begotten as the only-begotten of the Father, only of only,
God of God, like to the Father who begat him, according to the Scriptures: whose
generation no one knows, but the Father only who begat him. We know that this
his only-begotten Son came down from the heavens by his Father's consent for
the putting away of sin, was born of the Virgin Mary, conversed with his
disciples, and fulfilled every dispensation according to the Father's will: was
crucified and died, and descended into the lower parts of the earth, and disposed
matters there; at the sight of whom the (door-keepers of Hades trembled):
having arisen on the third day, he again conversed with his disciples, and after
forty days were completed he ascended into the heavens, and is seated at the
Father's right hand; and at the last day he will come in his Father's glory to
render to every one according to his works.
“[We believe] also in the Holy Spirit, whom the only-begotten Son of God Jesus
Christ himself promised to send to the human race as the Comforter, according
to that which is written: ‘I go away to my Father, and will ask him, and he will
send you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth. He shall receive of mine, and
shall teach you, and bring all things to your remembrance.’ As for the term
‘substance,’ which was used by our fathers for the sake of greater simplicity, but
not being understood by the people has caused offense on account of the fact
that the Scriptures do not contain it, it seemed desirable that it should be wholly
abolished, and that in future no mention should be made of substance in
reference to God, since the divine Scriptures have nowhere spoken concerning
the substance of the Father and the Son. But we say that the Son is in all things
like the Father, as the Holy Scriptures affirm and teach.”
359 Constantius called an ecumenical council to meet in two locations: the West
in Italy at Rimini, and the East at Seleucia in Asia Minor (Isauria). At Seleucia,
160 bishops attended. It is estimated that ¾ of them were Conservatives or
Semiarians (Basil’s party), while the remaining quarter were either
uncompromising Arians or loyal to the Nicene creed. The Lucianic creed of the
Council of Dedication (341) was adopted. The Arians were excommunicated, and
a successor was named for the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch.
The council at Rimini endorsed the Nicene formula.
deputation to Constantius.
Each council sent a
At Nike in Thrace, Valens hoodwinked the deputation from the Western council
into signing a version of the dated creed, saying that the Son is `like the Father
in all things, as Scripture says.' The statement, apparently, was what
Constantius wanted - a broad statement that everyone could interpret as he liked
and agree to. Valens thus regained Constantius’ favor, at Basil of Ancyra and the
Semiarian party’s expense. The creed of Nike, as given by Athanasius in de
Synodis:
“We believe in One God, Father Almighty, from whom are all things;
CHURCH HISTORY - 59
“And in the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten from God before all ages and
before every beginning, by whom all things were made, visible and invisible, and
begotten as only-begotten, only from the Father only, God from God, like to the
Father that begat Him according to the Scriptures; whose origin no one knows,
except the Father alone who begat Him. He as we acknowledge, the Onlybegotten Son of God, the Father sending Him, came hither from the heavens, as
it is written, for the undoing of sin and death, and was born of the Holy Ghost, of
Mary the Virgin according to the flesh, as it is written, and convened with the
disciples, and having fulfilled the whole Economy according to the Father's will,
was crucified and dead and buried and descended to the parts below the earth;
at whom hades itself shuddered: who also rose from the dead on the third day,
and abode with the disciples, and, forty days being fulfilled, was taken up into
the heavens, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, to come in the last day
of the resurrection in the Father's glory, that He may render to every man
according to his works.
“And in the Holy Ghost, whom the Only-begotten Son of God Himself, Christ, our
Lord and God, promised to send to the race of man, as Paraclete, as it is written,
`the Spirit of truth' (John 16.13), which He sent unto them when He had
ascended into the heavens.
“But the name of `Essence,' which was set down by the Fathers in simplicity,
and, being unknown by the people, caused offence, because the Scriptures
contain it not, it has seemed good to abolish, and for the future to make no
mention of it at all; since the divine Scriptures have made no mention of the
Essence of Father and Son. For neither ought Subsistence to be named
concerning Father, Son, and Holy Ghost But, we say that the Son is Like the
Father, as the divine Scriptures say and teach; and all the heresies, both those
which have been afore condemned already, and whatever are of modern date,
being contrary to this published statement, be they anathema.”
The Semi-Arianswere defeated by Valens’ influence at court, swept from their
sees and replaced by Homoeans.
Jerome wrote of the council of Rimini, “the world groaned to find itself Arian.”
360 A council in Constantinople, called to celebrate the dedication of the church
of Sancta Sophia, promulgated a creed (a version of the Nike creed of 359) that
stated the Son is like the Father, without further qualification. (Aetius, who
could not agree to say that the Son is like the Father in any way, was exiled.)
Soon thereafter, Basil and Macedonius of Constantinople were deposed on
charges of misconduct. Though Macedonius was deposed, the Pneumatomachi
were clearly marked off as a party.
Eudoxius of Antioch became bishop of Constantinople (see year 357).
360 Athanasius, head of the homoousios party, realized that he and the
homoiousios (“like in substance”) party (led by Basil of Ancyra) were really allies.
He wrote, “Those who accept the Nicene creed but have doubts about the term
homoousios must not be treated as enemies...” He pointed out that though
properties may be alike, essences cannot be, but are either the same or
different. When the homoiousians realized this, he believed, they would come
over to his side.
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360Meletius elected bishop of Antioch. He was soon banished by Constantius.
360 By this year, the church in Edessa observed a festival of All Martyrs on May
13th.
361 Constantius died, November 3, 361. Julian “the Apostate” became emperor.
He died in 363 during a campaign against the Persians. Julian proclaimed his
paganism and, in hopes of further disrupting the church, published an edict on
February 9, 362, recalling all bishops exiled by Constantius. Julian also gave
permission and provided funds for the Jews to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
This project was terminated by an earthquake.
Ambrose mentions (Letter 40) that the Jews burned two basilicas in Damascus,
others in Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus and Alexandria during Julian’s reign.
361 First mention of Epiphany in the West. Its observance in Gaul was noted by
Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan. Curiously, there is no record of December 25
observance in transalpine Gaul during the fourth century.
362Athanasius restored to his see. End of his third and last exile prolonged
exile. Athanasius was to be forced to depart from Alexandria for short periods in
362/3 and 365 also.
362 A famous ascetic named Paulinus was elected bishop of Antioch. Meletius
was already bishop there, but had been banished (see 360).
362 A new group, known as the Tropici, appeared in the Nile delta. They denied
the deity of the Holy Spirit, terming him simply a ministering spirit, and were
condemned at the council in Alexandria.
362 Athanasius called a council in Alexandria to deal with (1) terms under which
to accept the Arians back into communion and (2) to sort out the succession at
Antioch (see below). It was decided to accept the Arians on the grounds of their
subscription to the Nicene formula and their repudiation of Arianism, including
the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is a creature.
This council was of key
importance. Jerome said that by its judicious conciliation it “snatched the world
from the jaws of Satan.” Exiles returned across the empire (see year 356) and
the example of this council was followed, reunion being accomplished on Nicean,
not Homoean, grounds.
There were three rival bishops in Antioch, two of whom are anti-Arian, Meletius
and Paulinus. In the course of the council, Athanasius began to act on the
principle that orthodoxy is a matter of intentions, not of formulas.
One
logomachy dealt with the use of the term hypostases. The anti-Sabellian
tradition following Origen had spoken of three hypostases, meaning three entities
existing in their own right, as a safeguard against the notion that the Father, Son
and Spirit are just descriptions of different divine attributes. But, to some,
“three hypostases” seemed like tritheism. Meletius spoke of three hypostases,
but Paulinus of one. Based on loyalties, Rome and Athanasius recognize Paulinus
as rightful bishop of Antioch, but they considered Meletius orthodox.
CHURCH HISTORY - 61
362 The colossal statue of Apollo in Antioch of Syria, made of gold with jewels for
eyes, was destroyed by fire.
363 The council of Laodicea (in the Lycus valley) enumerated the canon of
scripture in Canon 60, which is of doubtful authenticity. The New Testament
canonical books were those we now receive, with the exception of Revelation,
which Laodicea did not accept.
The Old Testament agreed with the modern Protestant Old Testament, with the
addition of Baruch and the Epistle.
(Unlike Athanasius, Laodicea included
Esther.)
Theologians of the Alexandrian school generally agreed with Athanasius: Cyril of
Jerusalem, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Epiphanius, for example. The Antiochene
school, John Chrysostom and Theodoret was more favorable towards the
"Apocrypha." Though the East was generally hesitant about the Apocrypha, the
West was favorable.
The synod’s fifty-nine other canons affirmed the lawfulness of receiving the
remarried and contrite to communion; determined that Montanists who
converted were to be baptized; and forbade Christians from praying in the
graveyards of heretics, honoring heretical martyrs instead of faithful ones,
receiving the blessings of heretics, praying with heretics or schismatics, marrying
their children to heretics, holding “love feasts” in the church, judaizing by resting
on Saturday, receiving portions from the feasts of heretics or Jews, or clubbing
“together for drinking entertainments.” The council also passed various canons
regarding propriety in the worship service and the Lenten season. It addressed
the travel of bishops for synods and forbade the travel of priests and other clergy
without the bishop’s permission. It forbade the clergy from being magicians,
from manufacturing magic amulets, and from seeing plays at weddings and
banquets.
The exact date of this synod is not known. It has been placed as early as 343
and as late as 381.
363 A council met in Antioch in this year. By this time, the Arians were split into
three groups: the Acacians who, following Acacius, said that the Son was like
the Father , without making further clarification; the Semiarians, or
homoiousions; and the Aetians, who held that the Son was unlike the Father.
Later, the Aetians would by termed Eunomians. This council of Antioch has been
termed an Acacian synod.
364 Valentinian I (364-75) became Emperor. He restored the division of the
empire, taking the West and entrusting the East to his brother Valens (364-78).
Valens’ wife swayed him in favor of Eudoxius, the Arian bishop of Constantinople,
and then in favor of his Arian successor, Demophilus.
364Basil, later bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, ordained to the priesthood.
About this time he wrote his books against Eunomius. Eunomius was a follower
of Aetius, who formed an ecclesiastical sect centered in Constantinople.
Eunomius was condemned at the second ecumenical council in Constantinople in
381 and died ~394.
CHURCH HISTORY - 62
According to Sozomen (vi, 26), Eunomius was accused of being the first to
baptize with single immersion. Theodoret adds that he also abandoned the
invocation of the Trinity at baptism.
364 At a council in Lampsacus, the Semiarians opposed the councils of Arminium
(359) and Constantinople (360), reissuing instead the Lucianic creed of Antioch
(341). They also deposed Acacius of Caesarea.
366 Semiarian deputies sent to Liberius in Rome from the council of Lampsacus.
They subscribed to the Nicene creed, thus demonstrating their orthodoxy.
366 Liberius, bishop of Rome, died. He had subscribed to an Arian creed (see
year 358), but continued to govern the church in Rome. Damasus and Ursinus
battled for the bishopric of Rome. At the end of one day, 137 corpses were
counted in the Liberian basilica. Damasus won and ruled through 384. In
Damasus’ time, Latin was used in the Roman liturgy for the first time.
Damasus wrote that Rome was the “first see of the apostle Peter” and the
“apostolic see.” He began the habit of using the “plural of majesty” in his
writings, and he addressed his fellow bishops for the first time as “sons,” instead
of the traditional “brothers.” Damasus claimed to be the “exclusive inheritor of
all, and more than all, that the New Testament tells us of the prerogative of St.
Peter.” He also claimed that the authority of the council of Nicea was based on
its acceptance by Sylvester, his predecessor. Much of this verbiage may have
been induced by the pretensions of Constantinople (see 381).
That the bishop of Rome enjoyed temporal power in this time is illustrated by the
pagan official Praetextus’ words to Damasus: “Make me bishop of Rome and I
will turn Christian.”
367 The council of Tyana accepted the restitution of the Semiarian bishops.
(Was this an ecclesiastical validation of Julian’s edict of 362?)
367 In his annual “festal letter,” Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, listed the
canon of scripture. His canon was very close to the modern Protestant Bible,
listing the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther (!), Judith, and
Tobit specifically as outside the canon. It is probable, however, that he meant to
include the Greek additions to the Hebrew books in the canon. He does not
mention the books of Maccabees. (Athanasius’ listing is identical to that of
Laodicea, 363, except for his inclusion of the book of Revelation.) This was the
first listing of the 27 books of the modern New Testament as being canonical,
without also including certain books not considered canonical in our time.
367Epiphanios (Epiphanius) became bishop of Salamis. Served through 403.
Found a curtain in a church porch in Palestine decorated with a picture of Christ
or some saint. He tore it down and lodged a vehement protest with the bishop of
Jerusalem. [This may be an apocryphal account, invented by iconoclasts.]
Epiphanios stated that Mary, not Eve, is the mother of all living. He neither
affirmed nor denied her death. Most Eastern theologians believed that Mary was
sinful, in need of redemption.
367 Britian raided by a combined force of Irish, Scots and Saxons.
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367 The West Roman emperor Valentinian I (364-75) gave the bishop of Rome
the right to judge cases against other bishops.
367-9 Christians in Gaul persecuted during the Eastern emperor Valens’ Gothic
war.
370 The “Cappadocian Fathers” came to the forefront of the post-Nicene debate.
Basil became metropolitan of Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia. He
replaced Eusebius and served through 379. Basil set about to build a solid
Nicene party in Cappadocia by appointing orthodox candidates to vacant sees.
Associated with Basil were his younger brother Gregory, who became bishop of
Nyssa (372-75, 375-395), and his friend Gregory whose father [Gregory] (see
year 381) was bishop of Nazianzus before him. Gregory of Nazianzus is also
known as Gregory the Theologian. Basil supported the cause of Meletius at
Antioch - they agreed on the “three hypostases” formula.
St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, concerning the state of the dead: “When he has
quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot
approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his
soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter,
and the propensity to evil.”
Basil was instrumental in curbing the excesses of individualism among the
ascetics. Basil stressed obedience, even over poverty and chastity, in the
monasteries in his province.
When criticizing Epiphanios, Basil implied that the view that Mary had children
with Joseph after Jesus was born is not unorthodox. Gregory of Nyssa (as well
as Athanasius) held that Mary was a virgin before, during, and after Christ’s
birth. Gregory also held that Mary and her virginity ended the reign of death.
371 St. Martin became bishop of Tours. A child of pagan parents, Martin had
become a Christian when he was 10 years old. He was forced into the Roman
army, but petitioned the Emperor Julian the Apostate, and was eventually
discharged. He then became an evangelist, working in Pannonia and Illyricum.
In 360, he joined Hilary of Poitiers in that city, then founded the first monastery
in Gaul, at Liguge.
As bishop, Martin continued to act as an evangelist,
especially in Touraine and the countryside where the faith was little known.
372 The Eastern emperor Valens reduced Basil of Caesarea’s power by dividing
Cappadocia in two. He directed that Tyana be considered the chief town in the
new province.
A canon of Nicea had tied ecclesiastical provinces to civil
provinces, so the division diminished Basil’s jurisdiction as metropolitan of
Cappadocia.
372 Basil made Gregory Nazianzus bishop of the tiny village of Sasima. For
Basil, this was a tactical move to assist him against the rival bishop of Tyana.
Antithimus, bishop of Tyana, argued that he should have privileges equal to
Basil’s.
CHURCH HISTORY - 64
373 Athanasius died. Apollinaris of Laodicea in Syria, his friend, asserted a
Christology in which the Logos replaced the human mind of the Son. This
implied that Christ was not fully human, which has unwanted implications for
soteriology. Christologies of the “Word-Flesh” type (like that of Apollinarius)
were common coming from Alexandria, while Antioch championed a “Word-Man”
theology.
The former type had the potential to do disservice to Christ’s
humanity, while the latter had difficulty with the fusion of the two natures,
human and divine, into one person.
373 Ambrose became bishop of Milan. Served through 397. Ambrose believed
in Mary’s perpetual virginity, though, at first, he was reluctant to do so.
Ambrose wrote that St. Peter had “a primacy of confession, not of office; a
primacy of faith, not of rank.” During Ambrose’s time, the capital in the West
was at Milan, and Ambrose had considerable influence over the emperor. The
bishop of Rome was forced to surrender control of the church in northern Italy to
the bishop of Milan. (Milan had originally become the capital of the West in 286
when Diocletian divided the empire. But the imperial court had resided for some
time at Trier before returning to Milan in 383.)
374 St. Epiphanios, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, published his Ancoratus. It
contained two creeds, the first of which is nearly identical to that of
Constantinople (381). It included the phrase, “the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver
of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together
is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.”
374 When Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan, died, Ambrose was elected
bishop in his stead - though only a catechumen at the time. St. Ambrose sent a
deputation to St. Basil to collect the body of St. Dionysius, the late Catholic
bishop of Milan.
374 For his opposition to Arianism, St. Macarius (d. 390) the Egyptian was
banished to an island in the Nile by bishop Lucius of Alexandria. Macarius had
become a hermit in the desert of Scete in around 330, and lived there for much
of the following 60 years. Macarius had gifts of healing and prophecy. He was
the author of 50 Spiritual Homilies, which describes the ascent of the spirit,
through work, discipline, and meditation, toward the vision of light.
375 Basil of Casarea published his On the Holy Spirit. His argument in favor of
the Spirit’s divinity was based largely on tradition in baptism and doxology.
375 Epiphanios (see 335), bishop of Salamis in Cyprus (367-403), launched an
attack on the orthodoxy of Origen. He wanted to bring Origen (or, rather, his
corpse) to trial, and he was troubled by the influence of Origen’s writings on
certain Egyptian monks, namely, Ammonius and three brothers, known
collectively as the Tall Brothers. Evagrius moved to Egypt and put himself under
Ammonius’ direction, where he became the Tall Brothers’ literary spokesman.
CHURCH HISTORY - 65
Epiphanios was a scholar. According to Jerome, he knew Greek, Hebrew, Syriac,
Coptic, and some Latin. He was also an energetic defender of the Orthodox
faith. His chief written works are the Panarion, written by about 377, which
describes 80 heresies, and the Ancoratus, a compendium of church teachings
dating to 374.
In his works, Epiphanios denounced a sect called the
Collyridians, which worshipped Mary.
He also described a group of
Quartodecimans in Asia Minor who taught that Jesus was crucified on March 25
and who celebrated Easter invariably on that date.
In the Panarion, also known as the Refutation of all the Heresies, Epiphanios
wrote, “The Savior was born in the 42nd year of Augustus, emperor of the
Romans ... on 8 before the Ides of January” (January 6). He asserted that the
wedding in Cana occurred on the same date, but held that Christ’s baptism was
on November 8. Palestine excepted (and Epiphanios was from there), the East
held 6 January as the date of the Lord’s baptism also.
377 The Eastern emperor Valens allowed Goths into the empire. As part of the
deal worked out by Valens and the Gothic leader Fritigern (according to the
historian Sozomen), Fritigern agreed to adopt the emperor’s Arian faith and to
persuade his followers to do likewise. Other tribes - Burgundians, Ostrogoths,
Sueves, and Vandals - also adopted Arianism after entering imperial territory.
377 Jerome visited Evagrius in Antioch. Evagrius won him over to the party of
bishop Paulinus (who was opposed by the supporters of Meletius, including Basil
of Caesarea) in the contention over the see of Antioch.
377 Damasus realized the implications of Apollinarius’ Christology and held a
council that condemned his teachings. Its sentence was confirmed by synods in
Alexandria in 378 and Antioch in 379.
378 Paulinus ordained Jerome a priest in Antioch. Jerome became a disciple of
Gregory of Nazianzus.
378 Gratian (375-83), emperor in the West, supported the bishop of Rome’s
claim to authority over other bishops in the West. At Gratian’s request, Ambrose
wrote the first two books of De Fide.
378 The Eastern emperor Valens died in the battle of Adrianople against Fritigern
and his Goths. More than 2/3 of Valens’ army was slain.
378Diodore became bishop of Tarsus. Served through 390. Teacher of John
Chrysostom. Diodore (from the Word-Man school) came into conflict with
Apollinarius over the nature of Christ.
Apollinarius suspected Diodore of
believing that Jesus was simply a uniquely inspired man. Diodore refused to call
Mary Theotokos unless it was balanced by saying Mary was the “mother of man”
as well.
379 On January 1, St. Basil the Great died.
379 Theodosius became Eastern Roman emperor.
Ruled through 395.
Christianity became an ingredient of good citizenship, and many pagan temples
were closed. Pagans themselves were generally tolerated.
CHURCH HISTORY - 66
Theodosius made it clear that he wanted conformity with the creed of Nicea.
Bishops not in communion with Pope Damasus and Athanasius’ successor at
Alexandria, Peter, would not be recognized. He soon discovered, however, that
Meletius of Antioch was capable of bringing the Greek world to unity. Paulinus
refused to be co-bishop with Meletius, so he was abandoned. Meletius later
presided at the council of Constantinople (381).
380 Theodosius recognized the bishop of Rome as the guardian of the true faith.
He reserved the title “Catholic Christians” to those who espoused the bishop of
Rome’s doctrines.
380 The canons of the synod of Saragossa, Spain, made the first mention of
Advent as a season of preparation for Epiphany. The council also condemned the
teachings of Priscillian, later bishop of Avila, Spain. From about 375 Priscillian
taught that bodies were created by the Satan, that souls were imprisoned in
bodies as punishment for sins, and that angels and human souls were
emanations from the Godhead. Eleven sermons ascribed to Priscillian were
published in 1889. They teach that the Son differs from the Father in name only.
380 About this year, Christmas was celebrated on December 25 for the first time
in Antioch.
381Second Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople - practically, the end of
the battle against Arianism. Theodosius made Meletius of Antioch president
(note that Meletius was not in communion with the bishop of Rome, who had
backed Paulinus for the contested episcopacy at Antioch). No representatives
from Rome were present.
The homoousios was reasserted. The council
recognized the bishop of Constantinople as second in standing to Rome, because
“Constantinople is the new Rome.”
The creed of the Council of Constantinople, popularly known as the Nicene creed,
sometimes known as the Creed of the 150 Fathers, may not have been adopted
at the council at all.
That is, however, the tradition, and it was the
understanding of the Council of Chalcedon. The creed:
“We believe in one God, the Father All Governing, creator of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible;
“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten from the
Father before all time, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not
created, of the same essence as the Father [homoousion to patri], through whom
all things came into being. Who for us men and for our salvation came down
from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and
became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was
buried, and rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and ascended to
heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom shall have no end.
“And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceeds from the Father,
Who is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and Son, Who spoke
through the prophets; and in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We
confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
We look forward to the
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 67
The influence of Basil of Caesarea is seen in the phrase “Who is worshipped and
glorified together with the Father and Son,” and in the fact that the Son is
begotten, while the Spirit proceeds.
The addition “by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary” was a bulwark against
Apollinarius’ heresy (see 373). Apollinarius denied the human nature of Christ,
believing his human soul to have been replaced by the Divine Logos and his flesh
to have come, not from the Virgin, but directly from heaven.
In addition to his unorthodox Christology, Apollinarius wrote “about the
resurrection from a mythical, or rather Jewish, point of view; urging that we shall
return again to the worship of the Law, be circumcised, keep the Sabbath,
abstain from meats, offer sacrifices to God, worship in the Temple at Jerusalem,
and be altogether turned from Christians into Jews” (Basil, L263.4). Since
Apollinarius’ heresies were condemned in Canon 1 of the Second Ecumenical
Council, no Orthodox eschatology can contain any of these elements.
The first canon of the council: “The faith of the three hundred and eighteen
fathers assembled at Nicea in Bithynia shall not be set aside, but shall remain
firm.
And every heresy shall be anathematized, particularly that of the
Eunomians or Eudoxians, and that of the semi-Arians or Pneumatomachi, and
that of the Sabellians, and that of the Marcellians, and that of the Photinians, and
that of the Apollinarians.”
381 For a while, just before and during the council, Gregory of Nazianzus was
made bishop of Constantinople, in the face of an angry, Arian mob. He presided
over the council until he was deposed on a technicality. In his writings, Gregory
mentioned the story of a virgin who implored Mary to help her in her time of
peril. He related it as if there is nothing strange about it, indicating this may
have been a common practice by this time.
381 A council was held at Aquileia, which condemned the doctrines of Palladius
and Secundianus. Ambrose of Milan was present. About this time, Ambrose
completed his De Spiritu Sancto, in three books.
382 The emperor Theodosius settled the Tervingi, a Gothic tribe that had been
allowed into the empire in 376 (377?), in Moesia. These Goths had defeated
Valens at Adrianople in 378. The head of the embassy requesting this settlement
was Ulfila, Arian bishop of the Goths.
382Jerome (340-420) became an adviser to Damasus in Rome. Jerome initially
rejected Mary’s virginity in childbirth, which he later came to accept, along with
her perpetual virginity thereafter. Jerome was responsible for the theory that
Jesus’ brothers were actually cousins, and that Joseph as well as Mary was a
virgin. He attacked the view that virginity and marriage are to be valued
equally.
CHURCH HISTORY - 68
Jerome wrote: “It is not the case that there is one church at Rome and another
in all the world beside. Gaul and Britain, Africa and Persia, India and the East
worship one Christ and observe one rule of truth. If you ask for authority, the
world outweighs its capital. Wherever there is a bishop, whether it be at Rome or
at Engubium, whether it be Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it be at
Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one and his priesthood is one. Neither the
command of wealth nor the lowliness of poverty makes him more a bishop or
less a bishop. All alike are successors of the apostles.” (Letter CXLVI to
Evangelus)
However, Jerome’s principle for solving ecclesiastical and theological problems
was unity with the bishop of Rome. He is the earliest authority for the claim that
Peter was bishop of Rome for 25 years.
Jerome believed that the Devil and those who have denied God will be tortured
for eternity, but that reprobate Christians will eventually be saved.
Jerome created a new translation of the Bible into Latin (now known as the
Vulgate). Unlike the Old Latin version, Jerome’s Vulgate relied on the Hebrew
Old Testament rather than the Septuagint.
His translation was declared
authoritative at the council of Trent (Fourth Session, 1546). Jerome began work
on this translation during a stay in Rome (382-85) when Damasus was bishop,
working initially on the psalms and the New Testament. He completed his
translation, the Vulgate, while living in Bethlehem, in 405.
382 Gratian ordered the removal of the image of Victory from the forum in
Rome.
382 A council meeting at Rome stated that Roman primacy is not founded on
synodical decisions (referring to Constantinople, 381), but on the promise of
Christ to Peter. It asserted a hierarchy: the prime see is at Rome, the second at
Alexandria, and the third at Antioch. Rome did recognize Constantinople as
second in rank in 869, at the synod held to condemn Photius.
384 Siricius (384-99) became bishop of Rome. He was the first Roman bishop to
use the title “pope.” Siricius claimed for his rescripts and decretals the same
binding force as synodal decrees, since “the care of all the churches” was
“committed to him.” He threatened sanctions against those who disobeyed him.
384 A synod meeting in Bourdeaux, attended by Martin of Tours, condemned
Priscillianism (see 380, Saragossa).
Though Martin opposed the killing of
heretics, the Emperor Magnus Maximus (383-88) had Priscillian executed.
385 After Damasus’ death, and under fire for his criticism of the Roman clergy,
lax monks, and hypocritical virgins, and for his correction of the gospel texts,
Jerome left Rome for the Holy Land, and settled in Bethlehem.
CHURCH HISTORY - 69
385The Pilgrimage of Silvia, written about this time, described the journey to
Palestine by a devout lady (Sylvia) from Gaul. Silvia stated that on Ascension
Day (40 days after Easter) there was a solemn procession to the Mount of Olives.
The procession ended at the church of the Ascension built on the mount by the
Empress Helena.
The Pilgrimage also mentions the Feast of Purification
(February 2) as being then observed in Jerusalem. That feast came to be called
Candlemas because of the words of Simeon (Luke 2.32).
Also this year, a new basilica was consecrated in Milan.
385-6 The bishop of Rome, Siricius (384-99), wrote a letter to Himerius of
Tarragona criticizing the practice of performing baptisms at times such as
Christmas, Epiphany, and the festivals of saints and martyrs. By this time, in
Rome, baptism was performed on Pascha and Pentecost only. In the letter,
Siricius also commanded celibacy for priests. This was the first decree on the
subject. In support of his position, Siricius quoted Romans 8.8: “those who are
in the flesh cannot please God.” The letter to Himerius contains a reference to
Matthew 16.18-19 as supporting papal rights.
This is the earliest such
interpretation of that passage extant.
385 St. Theophilus (385-412) became bishop of Alexandria. The Roman practice
of Easter baptism was unknown in Alexandria at this time.
385 According to a letter written by St. Ambrose, the Metonic cycle (used in
calculating the date of Easter, named after an Athenian astronomer named
Meton who died circa 433) was in use at this time.
387 John succeeded Cyril as bishop of Jerusalem.
387St. Ambrose baptized St. Augustine in Milan.
389St. Gregory of Nyssa composed his Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles.
In this commentary, in his Life of Moses, and in other works, Gregory
enunciated his mystical theology. Against the pagan notion that change is
imperfection - which had led, in Origen, to the notion that men might fall into sin
again, even in the future life - Gregory described the perfection of man as an
eternal ascent into ever-increasing holiness. No changeless state is achievable,
because God is wrapped in an impenetrable divine darkness - no created being
can ever know him comppletely.
390 Theodosius had thousands of Thessalonicans massacred for killing a
barbarian army commander. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, brought the emperor to
public penance.
390Symeon the Stylite born. Died 459. Lived on top of a column at the
monastery in Telanissos in Syria. He became so prestigious that his assent was
required to the verdicts of the councils of Ephesus in 431 and Chalcedon in 451.
His imitator, Daniel (409-493), lived for 37 years atop a column near
Constantinople.
390 Death of St. Gregory Nazianzus. Death of St. Ephraim the Syrian (303390). Many of Ephraim’s theological works are in the form of hymns.
CHURCH HISTORY - 70
391In two edicts issued this year and in 392,Theodosius made Christianity the
official religion of the empire. Paganism was proscribed.
391 Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, had the temple of Serapis (the Serapeum)
dismantled. In doing so, he was enforcing recent imperial legislation suppressing
pagan temples. The Serapeum was the world's largest temple to Serapis, a god
of the sun, healing, and fertility. Gnostics sometimes identified Serapis with the
godhead.
392Theodore (392-429) became bishop of Mopsuestia in the Cilician plain.
Served through 428. Theodore developed Diodore’s Christology. His concern
was to protect Christ’s human nature, which he considered necessary to human
redemption. He taught Christ as one person (prosopon) in two natures. Diodore
and Theodore are representative of the “Word-Man” Christology.
Theodore became spiritual head of the exegetical school at Antioch. Instead of
the allegorical interpretive method employed at Alexandria, Theodore stressed
the literal sense. He argued that those who interpret Scripture allegorically “turn
everything backwards, since they make no distinction in divine Scripture between
what the text says and dreams....”
Though influenced by Origen, Theodore’s exegesis of Mt 16.17-18 did not
identify the Rock with Christ, but with Peter’s confession of faith. According to
Theodore, the church is built on Peter’s confession of faith (Rom 10.9). So also
Chrysostom (see 398 below).
393 A council at Hippo set the canon along the lines approved by Augustine including the Deuterocanonical books. Augustine’s Old Testament list: Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the four books
of Kings (Samuel and Kings), the two books of Chronicles, Job, Tobias, Esther,
Judith, two books of the Maccabees, two books of Esdras (Ezra and Nehemiah),
Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the
twelve minor prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel. Augustine’s New
Testament agreed with the modern listing.
393 Jerome and Epiphanius of Salamis attacked John of Jerusalem for adhering
to the views of Origen. Epiphanius incited the monks of Palestine to antiOrigenism. John refused to baptize their converts or bury their dead.
393 A synod in Caesarea concurred with Siricius’ (bishop of Rome, see 384)
support of Flavian I as bishop of Antioch and so ended a schism in the Antiochian
church.
394 Siricius of Rome arbitrated a dispute within the Arabian church over the
bishopric of Bosra (Bostra).
394Olympic games abolished.
CHURCH HISTORY - 71
397 Ninian established a monastery on Whithorn Island in Scotland with a
whitewashed stone church - the Candida Casa (White House) - said tto be the
only church in Britain built from stone. From that base, he labored for the
conversion of the Picts and Celts. Ninian’s school on Whithorn was the only
educational institution in the north of Britain. Born in Scotland in about 360,
Ninian had traveled to Rome in around 380, where he eventually met bishop
Siricius and Jerome. Siricius commissioned him to evangelize Scotland, and
provided him priests as companions, along with vestments, relics, books and
sacred vessels. Along the road back to Scotland, Ninian met Martin of Tours.
395Augustine bishop of Hippo (in North Africa). Died 430. Author of the
Confessions, the City of God, etc. Apart from being the most influential Western
theologian of the early church, Augustine was a strong exponent of Mary’s
permanent virginity. He held that Mary was sinless, though not through her own
will (as the Pelagians would have it) but by virtue of a special grace. Mary had,
however, been born subject to original sin like all other humans. But she had
been delivered from its effects by the grace of rebirth.
Augustine commented on Matthew 16.18: “All were asked, but Peter alone
answers, Thou art the Christ; and it is said to him, I will give thee the keys; as if
he alone had received the power of loosing and binding; whereas he both spoke
for all, and received in common for all, being, as it were, the representation of
unity.” This recalled Cyprian’s interpretation.
Augustine on infant baptism: “If anyone should ask for divine authority in this
matter, though that which the whole church practices and which has not been
instituted by the councils -- but was ever in use -- is very reasonably believed to
be no other than a thing delivered by the authority of the apostles, yet we may
besides take a true estimate, how much the sacrament of baptism does avail
infants, by the circumcision which God’s former people received.”
On infant communion: “If then, as so many divine testimonies do agree, neither
salvation nor eternal life is to be hoped for by any, without baptism and the body
and blood of our Lord, it is in vain promised to infants without them.”
Augustine wrote On the Trinity, in which he argued that the Spirit proceeds from
the Father and the Son. In Latin translations of the Creed of Constantinople
(381), this “filioque” clause was inserted eventually. It was thought to be an
indispensable anti-Arian proposition.
Augustine held that damnation for the lost is eternal, but that the torture of
unbaptized children will be the most mild of all. Christians who have become
entangled with earthly delights will have to undergo a purification by fire.
At some point in his career, Augustine attended a council at Milevita (see 419
below). The council excommunicated those who carry appeals beyond the seas.
Representatives from Rome produced fraudulent copies of the declarations of
Nicea (325) which purported to give Rome the right to hear appeals from Africa.
The African bishops sent to Constantinople for copies of the canons of Nicea, and
discovered the Roman deception.
CHURCH HISTORY - 72
396 Jerome published a scathing attack on John of Jerusalem. The occasion was
the visit of Epiphanius to Jerusalem. Epiphanius preached against Origenism,
while John vocalized against Anthropomorphism - the opposite extreme. A
breach resulted between the two, and Jerome took Epiphanius’ side. In the
period from roughly 393-403, the condemnation of Origenism was widespread.
The quarrel between Jerome and John was short-lived. [These events may have
occurred in 393 - see note above.]
397 Jerome and John of Jerusalem were reconciled through the mediation of
Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria. John became neutral on the Origen issue,
while argument continued between Jerome and his former colleague, Tyrannius
Rufinus. Theophilus himself now opposed Origenism.
398 Death of Didymus the Blind (~313-398). Blind from birth, Didymus was
appointed by St. Athanasius to head the catechetical school in Alexandria. He
was an opponent of Arianism, but certain of his teachings may have been
condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in its tenth anathema directed
against Origen (see 553). The ancient epitome of the Quinisext council’s (see
691) first canon mentions Didymus together with Origen and Evagrios (see 399)
as denying the resurrection of the flesh, teaching that hell will be temporary,
“and other innumerable insane blasphemies.” Didymus may also have been the
author of certain works formerly attributed to Basil the Great (pseudo-Basil).
398John Chrysostom became bishop of Constantinople. Served through 404.
John held that Mary was not without fault. In commenting on Matthew 12.46-49,
for instance (Homily 44 on Matthew), Chrysostom wrote, “For in fact that which
she had essayed to do was of superfluous vanity, in that she wanted to show the
people that she has power and authority over her Son.” Then, later, “He both
healed the [in the context, her] disease of vainglory, and rendered the due honor
to His mother, even though her request was unreasonable.”
Chrysostom’s view of Peter’s place in the church was complex. Writing on the
“Rock” passage, he said (Volume X, Homily LIV):
“What then saith Christ? ‘Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas; thou shalt be called
Cephas.’ ‘Thus since thou hast proclaimed my Father, I too name him that begat
thee;’ all but saying, "As thou art son of Jonas, even so am I of my Father." Else
it were superfluous to say, “Thou art Son of Jonas;” but since he had said, “Son
of God,” to point out that He is so Son of God, as the other son of Jonas, of the
same substance with Him that begat Him, therefore He added this, ‘And I say
unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church;’ that is, on
the faith of his confession. Hereby He signifies that many were now on the point
of believing, and raises his spirit, and makes him a shepherd.”
He was not at all concerned with the continuing primacy of the See of Peter.
Instead, he defended the dignity and majesty of the Christ:
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“Seest thou how He, His own self, leads Peter on to high thoughts of Him, and
reveals Himself, and implies that He is Son of God by these two promises? For
those things which are peculiar to God alone, (both to absolve sins, and to make
the church incapable of overthrow in such assailing waves, and to exhibit a man
that is a fisher more solid than any rock, while all the world is at war with him),
these He promises Himself to give; as the Father, speaking to Jeremiah, said, He
would make him as ‘a brazen pillar, and as a wall;’ but him to one nation only,
this man in every part of the world.”
“I would fain inquire then of those who desire to lessen the dignity of the Son,
which manner of gifts were greater, those which the Father gave to Peter, or
those which the Son gave him? For the Father gave to Peter the revelation of the
Son; but the Son gave him to sow that of the Father and that of Himself in every
part of the world; and to a mortal man He entrusted the authority over all things
in Heaven, giving him the keys; who extended the church to every part of the
world, and declared it to be stronger than heaven. ‘For heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my word shall not pass away.’ How then is He less, who hath
given such gifts, hath effected such things?”
399 After initially supporting the Tall Brothers’ criticism of the
Anthropomorphites, Theophilus of Alexandria expelled the Origenists. They
moved to Constantinople and made their case to John Chrysostom. (Recall that
Alexandria was jealous of Constantinople’s elevation by the council of
Constantinople in 381.) In 400, a council convened at Theophilus’ behest
condemned Origen.
399 Death of Evagrios of Pontus (known as “the Solitary”). Evagrios, born
around 345, had been ordained reader by St. Basil the Great and deacon by St.
Gregory of Nazianzen. After attending the council at Constantinople in 381, he
went to Egypt in 383 to become a monk. Evagrios, like St. Gregory of Nyssa,
believed in the eventual salvation of all - a position later condemned at the Fifth
Ecumenical Council in 553. He also wrote on practical matters, such as the
spiritual discipline of the Desert Fathers. John Cassian was a disciple of Evagrios’
- though Cassian rejected his universalist error.
399 When Yezdegerd I ascended the throne of Persia in this year, he halted the
persecution of Christians in his realm.
400 The first consolidated edition of canon law published about this time (in the
East). Comprised the canons of many fourth century councils. (See 545 below.)
400 The Peshitta, a translation of the Bible into Aramaic, was completed around
this time. (This statement is disputed by George Lamsa, who claims that it is far
more ancient.) The Old Testament contains the so-called “Apocryphal” books.
The New Testament lacks 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.
~400 Chrysostom refers to a feast of All Martyrs being celebrated in Antioch on
the Sunday after Pentecost.
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The Fifth Century
401Augustine wrote On the Work of Monks against the notion that monks needed
to do no work, and could live on alms.
402 The capital in the West was moved from Milan to Ravenna.
402 Epiphanios of Salamis traveled to Constantinople to campaign against John
Chrysostom, who was sheltering four Origenist monks (three of them being the
Tall Brothers; see 375, 399. He became convinced of Chrysostom’s orthodoxy,
set sail for Salamis, but died en route.
403Synod of the Oak. John Chrysostom made a tactical error in alienating the
empress Eudoxia by calling her a Jezebel. Theophilus took occasion of the issue
over the Tall Brothers to have a council meeting at the palace of the Oak near
Chalcedon depose John. The emperor ratified the decision. An earth tremor the
following day caused the emperor to recall him. John, however, compared
Eudoxia to Herodias, and Theophilus denounced John as Satan. John was finally
deposed. However, a large portion of the congregation in Constantinople would
not enter the church and accept John’s successor, Atticus.
405 In a letter to Exsuperius, bishop of Toulouse, Innocent I, patriarch of Rome,
listed the canon of scripture. His canon included the ‘Apocrypha.’
405 St. Moses the Ethiopian, at the age of 75, died a martyr for Christ during a
barbarian invasion. He had been leader of a band of robbers in the Nile valley
before being converted to Christianity through an encounter with St. Isidore.
406-7 The Rhine froze and Vandals, Alans and Suevi invaded Gaul. (The
emperor Julian had settled a group of Franks in Taxandria, just south of the
Rhine estuary. The Salian Franks emerged here after the 406/7 invasion. See
480-81 below. The term ‘Ryperian Franks’ refers to a group that settled near
Cologne.)
408 The Vandals invaded Spain.
408 Theodosius II became emperor in the East. Ruled through 450.
408 An imperial decree issued in May of this year forbade Jews from burning
crosses during the festival of Purim.
409 The Roman legions departed Britain, leaving the island undefended.
410 The Visigoths under Alaric sacked Rome. They had been settled by Valens
(see year 377) in Moesia and Illyria (the Ostrogoths were still beyond the
Danube). Alaric had invaded Italy in 402.
410 St. Honoratus founded a monastery on the island of Lerins.
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At about this time St. John Cassian, a Scythian, settled at a monastery in
Marseilles, and organized monastic communities of men and women after the
Eastern model. In Marseilles, he wrote two works - the Conferences, and the
Institutes - that were to have immense influence on Benedict (see year 529
below) and medieval monasticism in the West. Cassian was looked upon an
authority because of his intimate familiarity with monasticism in Egypt. He also
wrote a work against Nestorius - On the Incarnation (about the year 430) at the
request of bishop Leo I of Rome. Although Cassian did not enter directly into
controversy with Augustine (410-430) over the doctrine of arbitrary
predestination, he is regarded by some as the leader of those in southern Gaul
who considered the doctrine antithetical to exhortations and punishment.
Against Augustine, they held that predestination is in the light of God’s
foreknowledge, for those who perish do so against God’s will. Man’s will is not
dead, only sick. Cassian thus emphasized the need for human effort along with
God’s grace.
411Pelagius visited Rome on his way to the Holy Land. Pelagius denied that
man’s will has any intrinsic bias against doing good. He also denied any inward
action on the part of God on the soul. He believed that a man can observe God’s
commandments without sinning, if he wills it. Augustine entered into vehement
conflict with Pelagianism. Augustine held that, as a result of original sin, we are
enslaved to ignorance, concupiscence, and death. We have lost the liberty Adam
had to avoid evil and do good. So, to do good, God’s grace must be at work
within us - purely external aids will not do. Thus, it is for God to determine who
will receive grace, and who will not. Augustine’s doctrine had little influence in
the East.
411 The council of Carthage. Catholics and Donatists met with an imperial
arbitrator.
The Catholics were victorious.
In 412, the emperor Honorius
proscribed Donatism by edict, imposing fines and confiscating property.
411 According to a calendar from this year, Christians in the eastern part of Syria
observed a feast of All Saints on the Friday of Easter week.
412Cyril became patriarch of Alexandria. Served through 444. Cyril was
Theophilus’ nephew.
His Christology (sometimes called “Word-Flesh”) was
opposed to that of Theodore of Mopsuestia (Word-Man), fearing Theodore’s
Christology (two natures after the incarnation) implied that Christ was just an
inspired man.
415John of Jerusalem received Pelagius.
Jerome and an emissary from
Augustine of Hippo denounced Pelagius as heretical at a synod in Jerusalem in
July. John devised a compromise formula and, at the metropolitan Council of
Diospolis in December, Pelagius was declared free of doctrinal error. Soon
thereafter, John tacitly permitted the Pelagians to sack the anti-Pelagian
monastery at Bethlehem.
415Hypatia, a Neoplatonist philosopher, was brutally murdered in Alexandria. A
mob dragged her from her chariot, stripped her, and carried her to a church
where she was murdered by Peter the Reader. Her flesh was stripped from her
bones with oyster shells. Christians in Constantinople, at least, were horrified.
415 The bones of St. Stephen were discovered in Palestine in this year.
CHURCH HISTORY - 76
417 Pelagius excommunicated by Innocent I, bishop of Rome.
417Zosimus (417-18), bishop of Rome, “approved an heretical confession,
denying original sin.” [From the Patriarchical Encyclical of 1895.] However,
when Zosimus later read Pelagius’ commentary on Romans, he excommunicated
Pelagius and condemned his doctrine.
417-39 The liturgy in Jerusalem in this period is preserved in the Old Armenian
Lectionary.
418 Another council of Carthage condemned Pelagianism, though it did not
thoroughly endorse Augustine’s doctrine (see above, year 411). It held that (a)
death was not a necessity attached to human nature, but a penalty due to
Adam’s sin; (b) original sin inherited from Adam is present in every man and
even newly born children need baptism to be cleansed from this taint of sin; and
(c) grace is absolutely necessary, for “Without me you can do nothing.”
418 Upset by the bishop of Constantinople’s attempt to interfere in Illyria, the
bishop of Rome, Boniface I (418-22), wrote that the Roman church stood to “the
churches of the world as the head to its members.” He admitted that all bishops
hold “one and the same episcopal office” but advised that all should “recognize
those to whom for the sake of ecclesiastical discipline they ought to be subject.”
418 (416?) The emperor Honorius allowed the Gothic Tervingi, who had begun to
refer to themselves as Visigoths by this time, under their king, Wallia, to settle
as allies and dependents of the empire in western Gaul (Aquitane). From there
they spread across the Pyrenees into Spain, ostensibly to re-establish Roman
authority there. The Vandals fled to Mauretania (see 429 below).
419 A synod met at Carthage to establish a code of canon law for the church in
North Africa. St. Augustine of Hippo was in attendance. Pope Aurelius, bishop of
Carthage, presided. As the proceedings began, a certain Faustinus, legate of the
Roman church, asked that the council acknowledge the right of deposed bishops
to appeal to Rome. Faustinus claimed that this right had been granted by the
council of Nicea. Pope Aurelius sent to Constantinople for copies of the acts of
the council of Nicea, and found no such canon. Subsequently, he wrote a letter
to Pope Celestine of Rome (“our most honorable brother”) explaining that the
African church was not obliged to allow disputed cases to be referred to Rome.
In addition, he warned Celestine against hearing such cases - “how shall we be
able to rely on a sentence passed beyond the sea, since it will not be possible to
send thither the necessary witnesses” - and against receiving those who had
been excommunicated in Africa into communion in Rome.
420 Death of Jerome, in Bethlehem. Though he was initially buried near the
Grotto of the Nativity, his remains were later transferred to the Church of Santa
Maria Maggiore in Rome.
CHURCH HISTORY - 77
420 In about this year, a Christian priest in Persia destroyed a Zoroastrian fire
temple. Because of this and other, perhaps less violent, acts of proselytism,
Yezdegerd allowed the Christians to be persecuted. Some Christians fled into the
Roman Empire. The Persians demanded their extradition; the Romans refused,
and war ensued. In 422, after a Roman victory, a treaty was signed to ensure
peace for 100 years and put a stop to the persecution of Christians.
421 Julian (380-455), bishop of Eclanum, banished from Italy. He had refused to
agree to Zosimus’ condemnation of Pelagianism, demanding that an ecumenical
council consider the question. Julian was condemned by the council of Ephesus
in 431.
423Theodoret (bishop 423-49, 51-58) (393?-458?, author of the Religious
History) became bishop of Cyrrhus, near Antioch. Like Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Theodoret followed the historo-critical school of biblical interpretation.
His
Christology was of the Word-man type, but he agreed that Christ is properly
called Theotokos, and he denied that his doctrine divided “the Son into two
Sons.” According to some historians, there is likely a connection between the
interpretive methods of the schools of Antioch and Alexandria and their
respective Christologies. Alexandrians tended to read the gospels as allegories,
and so interpret statements regarding Jesus’ suffering, temptation, etc., in a
spiritual sense. The Antiochians, reading literally, emphasized Jesus as human,
as well as divine.
423 Celestine (423-32), bishop of Rome, laid it down as a principle that “No
bishop is to be appointed against the will of the people.” Celestine I also
introduced the Introit psalm with antiphon into the mass.
427 Augustine’s City of God published.
427 The Persians went to war against the Ephthalites or White Huns, a Turanian
people who had conquered the land between the Caspian Sea and the Indus
River. The Persians were distracted by numerous wars against the Ephthalites
until 557, thus reducing their threat to the Roman Empire.
428Nestorius, a monk of Antioch, became patriarch of Constantinople. Nestorius
was a follower of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and raised the ire of Cyril of
Alexandria by criticizing the use of Theotokos. Nestorius was concerned to
maintain that the incarnation cannot have involved the divine Word in any
change or suffering. Therefore, he could not agree with Cyril’s hypostatic union
(see 553 for the triumph of this doctrine), under which the Word would suffer.
Also, he thought that man’s redemption required that the second Adam had to be
a real man, not a creature dominated by or fused with the divine. Christ must
have had a genuine human life of growth, temptation and suffering.
According to some, Nestorius was misunderstood to teach that Christ was two
persons, one human and one divine. In actuality, they say, he taught a prosopic
union. In Greek, prosopon refers to the self-manifestation of an individual by
means of other things - a painter includes his brush within his own prosopon.
Nestorius taught that the Logos used manhood for his self-manifestation.
Manhood was included in his prosopon.
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Early in his episcopate, Nestorius alienated many potential supporters in
Constantinople: monks and many of the city’s aristocrats. Military leaders
disliked Nestorius’ closing of the last Arian chapel in Constantinople, since many
German auxiliaries were Arian.
429
The Vandals invaded Northern Africa.
430 Under the influence of Cyril of Alexandria, Celestine, patriarch of Rome,
commissioned John Cassian to write a letter to Nestorius, demanding
recantation. (Nestorius had unadvisedly entertained some Pelagians recently,
which didn’t help his image in the West.) Cyril also wrote to Nestorius, sending
him his Twelve Anathemas, which he had not coordinated with Rome, and which
Nestorius believed exposed Cyril as an Apollinarian.
Nestorius confidently
awaited the council of Ephesus.
Cyril’s twelve anathemas (stated positively): (1) Mary is Theotokos; (2) the
Word is united hypostatically to the flesh; (3) no separation of hypostases after
the union or any attempt to link them merely by association based on dignity,
honor or power - they are in a natural union; (4) statements about Christ should
not be distinguished as though some referred to the Word and others to the
man; (5) the description “God-inspired man” is repudiated; (6) the divine Word
is not Christ’s God or Lord, because He is simultaneously God and man; (7)
Jesus was not moved by the Word or clothed in His glory, because there is no
distinction between Him and the Word; (8) “the man assumed” does not deserve
to be worshipped along with the Word (as Nestorius liked to put it) because there
is no separation; (9) the Spirit was not an alien power enabling Jesus to work
miracles, because the Spirit was his very own; (10) our high priest is not a man
distinct from the Word, but the very Word himself; (11) the Lord’s flesh is the
very flesh of the Word, possessing thereby quickening power; and (12) the Word
suffered, was crucified, and died in His flesh.
Theodoret of Cyrrhus composed twelve anti-anathemas and accused Cyril of
Apollinarianism.
~430 Death of Neilos the Ascetic. An abbot of a monastery near Ankyra, Neilos
is the first writer to make a plain reference to the Jesus Prayer. He was also
author of the Ascetic Discources later published in the Philokalia.
431Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus.
Called by the emperor
Theodosius II. Held in the first church building known to have been dedicated to
the Blessed Virgin. Led by Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria (412-444), an extreme
Antiochene (Word-Man) Christology, taught by Nestorius, patriarch of
Constantinople, was condemned. Nestorius was understood to teach that the
man Jesus is an independent person beside the divine Logos and that therefore
Mary may not therefore properly be called theotokos (God bearer). Nestorius
was excommunicated.
Pelagianism was condemned.
Cyprus was granted
ecclesiastical independence, and Jerusalem was made a patriarchate (both at
Antioch’s expense). The council also resolved that no additions should be made
to the Nicene creed:
CHURCH HISTORY - 79
“Let no one be permitted to bring forward, or write or compose a different faith
besides that defined by the Holy Fathers who assembled with the Holy Spirit in
the city of Nicaea. And whoever dares compose a different faith, or present, or
offer [one] to those wishing to turn to the knowledge of the truth ... let such, if
they be bishops or belong to the clergy, be alien bishops from the episcopate,
and clerics from the clergy -- and if they be laymen, let them be given over to
anathema.”
The action at Ephesus was not harmonious. John, patriarch of Antioch, held a
simultaneous rival synod. Theodosius II decided to have both John and Cyril
arrested, and he ordered the bishops in Ephesus to depart. They refused, and
when the news that Cyril had been arrested resulted in a riot in Constantinople.
In the end, Theodosius II ruled in favor of Cyril. Cyril was not completely
victorious, however, as his Twelve Anathemas were not approved.
Nestorius went into exile and died in 451. His doctrine lived on, however. The
church in Persia adopted it to obtain the protection of their rulers -- after all,
their religion was now in conflict with the faith of the their Roman enemies.
431 A certain Palladius was sent by Celestine, bishop of Rome, to Christians in
Ireland.
431 The Vandals under Genseric took Hippo, the year after Blessed Augustine’s
death.
431 The metropolitan of Hierapolis, Alexander, restored the church in Risafe that
had been built over St. Sergios’ grave (see 303 above). Shortly afterward,
Risafe was made a bishopric. Justinian later changed the name of Risafe to
Sergiopolis. Risafe became the destination of pilgrimages. Sergios and Bacchus
were considered protectors of the Roman army. Many Eastern churches were
dedicated to them.
432Christmas celebrated in Alexandria on 25 December for the first time about
this year. Paul of Emessa preached in Cyril’s presence.
432 Sixtus III (432-40) became patriarch of Rome. He wrote to the patriarch of
Antioch regarding Nestorius: “Therefore, because, as the Apostle says, the faith
is one, - evidently the faith which has obtained hitherto, - let us believe the
things that are to be said, and say the things that are to be held. ...Let no
license be allowed to novelty, because it is not fit that any addition should be
made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled
with any muddy admixture.”
432St. Patrick began his mission to Ireland.
433 Cyril of Alexander and John of Antioch were reconciled. The instrument of
reconciliation, the Symbol of Union, employed largely Antiochene terminology,
but Cyril assented to it as containing, beneath this terminology, what he really
fought for in his Christology:
CHURCH HISTORY - 80
“We confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,
perfect God and perfect man composed of a rational soul and body, begotten
before the ages from His Father in respect of His divinity, but likewise in these
last days for us and our salvation from the Virgin Mary in respect of His
manhood, consubstantial with the Father in respect of His divinity and at the
same time consubstantial with us in respect of His manhood. For a union of two
natures has been accomplished. Hence we confess one Christ, one Son, one
Lord. In virtue of this conception of a union without confusion we confess the
holy Virgin as Theotokos because the divine Word became flesh and was made
man and from the very conception united to Himself the temple taken from her.
As for the evangelical and apostolic statements about the Lord, we recognize
theologians employ some indifferently in view of the unity of the person but
distinguish others in view of the duality of natures, applying the God-befitting
ones to Christ’s divinity and the humble ones to His humanity.”
Cyril’s more militant followers were not pleased.
434 Proclus Ecumenical Patriarch (434-46). St. John of Damascus states that,
while Proclus was Patriarch, a calamity threatened the city. A boy was taken up
from the people and taught by angels to say the Trisagion hymn: “Holy God,
Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” When he returned to earth and
told what he had learned, the people sang the hymn and the calamity was
averted.
Proclus’ Tome to the Armenians argued in favor of theopaschite language in
reference to Christ. Though Christ did not suffer in his divinity, he did do so
according to the flesh.
434St. Vincent of Lerins wrote his Commonitory as a guide for distinguishing the
Catholic faith from heresy. Although he was a Westerner, he made no mention
of the papacy as the center for faith. He refers to the bishop of Rome as the
“Head,” but doesn’t employ this headship in his theory. From the Commonitory:
“But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete,
and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is
there to join with it the authority of the Church’s interpretation? For this reason,
- because, owing to the depth of Holy Scriipture, all do not accept it in one and
the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another;
so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are
interpreters. For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus
another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinaris, Priscillian,
another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another, lastly, Nestorius another.
Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of such various
error, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles
should be framed in accordance with the standard of Ecclesiastical and Catholic
interpretation.
CHURCH HISTORY - 81
“Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we
hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is
truly and in the strictest sense ‘Catholic,’ which, as the name itself and the
reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall
observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality
if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the
world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations
which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers;
consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient
definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and
doctors.”
In another section, St. Vincent took up the question of the development of
doctrine: “But the Church of Christ, the careful and watchful guardian of the
doctrines deposited in her charge, never changes anything in them, never
diminishes, never adds, does not cut off what is necessary, does not add what is
superfluous, does not lose her own, does not appropriate what is another’s, but
while dealing faithfully and judiciously with ancient doctrine, keeps this one
object carefully in view, - if there be anything which antiquity has left shapeless
and rudimentary, to fashion and polish it, if anything already reduced to shape
and developed, to consolidate and strengthen it, if any already ratified and
defined to keep and guard it. Finally, what other object have Councils ever
aimed at in their decrees, than to provide that what was before believed in
simplicity should in future be believed intelligently, that what was before
preached coldly should in future be preached earnestly, that what was before
practiced negligently should thenceforward be practiced with double solicitude?
This, I say, is what the Catholic Church, roused by the novelties of heretics, has
accomplished by the decrees of her Councils, - this, and nothing else, - she has
thenceforward consigned to posterity in writing what she had received from
those of olden times only by tradition, comprising a great amount of matter in a
few words, and often, for the better understanding, designating an old article of
the faith by the characteristic of a new name.”
435 A certain Romanus retired to Condat near the Jura mountains in eastern
Gaul, intending to live as a hermit. Soon, many others followed him and formed
several monastic communities.
Among them was Eugendus, famous for
exorcisms.
439 The Vandals captured Carthage.
440 Leo I (440-461) became patriarch of Rome. Exhorted his congregation to
observe the Ember fasts, and discouraged them from mixing Christianity with
Sun worship. Rebuked his flock for paying reverence to the Sun god on the
steps of St. Peter’s before entering the basilica. He unearthed an infiltration of
Manichees into the congregation. In a letter to the emperor, he stated that “by
the Holy Spirit’s inspiration the emperor needs no human instruction and is
incapable of doctrinal error.”
On the other hand, Leo was the first bishop of Rome to claim the “plenitude of
power” over the church, which was to play such a large role in the development
of the papal monarchy over the Medieval church.
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Leo’s sermons made the first mention of the observance of Ember Days. Their
observance was widespread in the West by the eighth century. The Ember days
are a time of prayer and fasting, occurring on the Wednesday, Friday and
Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, after Whitsunday (Pentecost), after
September 14, and after December 13. The name “Ember” comes from a
German word, quatember, which is a corruption of the Latin quatuor tempora, or
four seasons.
444Dioscorus (444-451) became patriarch of Alexandria. Served through 451.
Dioscorus was one of the extremist party that regretted Cyril’s compromise of
433. He schemed with the court eunuch Chrysaphius (influential with the
emperor Theodosius II) to impose Cyril’s Twelve Anathemas as the standard of
orthodoxy. Chrysaphius’ godfather Eutyches challenged the orthodoxy of those
who say there are two natures after the union. When Flavian, patriarch of
Constantinople, condemned Eutyches as an Apollinarian, Dioscorus accused
Flavian of requiring a test for orthodoxy in addition to the Nicene Creed, which
the council of Ephesus had declared incapable of being supplemented. To
resolve these issues, Theodosius II called a council to meet in Ephesus in 449.
Eutyches taught that, after the incarnation, Christ had only one nature and was
not therefore of the same substance as other men, since it had been deified and
subsumed into the divine nature. This was the meaning of the Cyrillian formula
“one nature after the union” for Eutyches.
445 Valentinian III (425-54), emperor in the West, stated that “whatsoever the
authority of the apostolic see has sanctioned, or shall sanction, shall be law for
all.” This apparently is quoted from Valentinian’s Novel 17, which gave the
bishop of Rome authority over the provincial churches.
448 Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum (Asia Minor), proclaimed Eutyches’
Christology heretical. He was (later that year) deposed and excommunicated by
a synod run by patriarch Flavian in Constantinople.
448-84 Sometime between these dates, the monastery of the Sleepless Monks
was founded by Abbot Marcellus at Eirenaion, in the middle Bosporus, opposite
Sosthenion.
Their monastery contained a famous library, built mainly for
polemic purposes. The Sleepless Monks emerged as strong supporters of the
council of Chalcedon (451).
449 “Robber council” held at Ephesus. Leo, patriarch of Rome, was invited to the
council, but sent his Tome instead, which was not read. The council was run by
Dioscorus of Alexandria. Flavian was deposed, and one of Dioscorus’ presbyters
was made bishop of Constantinople. The “two natures after the union” doctrine
was condemned. The Symbol of Union was set aside as going beyond the
decisions of Ephesus in 431. The major “dyophysite” leaders were deposed.
Theodosius II was determined the council’s decisions would stand, in spite of
opposition from Rome. Theodoret of Cyrrhus was declared a heretic and sent
into exile.
450 About this year, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded England.
The Parthenon in Athens was converted to a church in about this year.
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450 Near this date, Codex Alexandrinus (A) was written. It contains all the
canonical and Deuterocanonical books of the Roman Catholic Old Testament, plus
3 & 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151. Affixed to the New Testament are I and II
Clement. The text type appears mixed, with some portions termed “neutral”
(Alexandrian) and others “Syrian” (Byzantine). This version of the Septuagint
appears to have been corrected by the Hebrew. Codex Alexandrinus was the
first of the ancient uncial codices to become known, being sent from
Constantinople to Britain in 1627.
Other documents from this time period include: Codex Bezae (D): Greek/Latin
Gospels + Acts (D contains many readings quoted in both Irenaeus and Clement
of Alexandria);
Codex Washingtonianus (W): Greek Gospels; both of “Western” text-type:
“fondness for paraphrase.”
Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus (C): Greek LXX + 27NT, many gaps
Codex Marchalianus (Q): Greek LXX + Luke + John, many gaps
Codex Ambrosianus (F): Greek Genesis to Joshua
Codex Freer: Greek Deuteronomy and Joshua
Codex Colberto-Sarravianus: Origen’s Greek Hexapla LXX of Gen-Judg
Codex Palatinus it(e): Latin Gospels, “African” (Carthage) text-type
Codex Veronensis it(b): Latin Gospels, “European/Vulgate” text-type
Syr(pal), Palestinian Syriac (Aramaic) Gospels, of “Caesarean” text-type
450 The Eastern emperor Theodosius II fell from his horse and died. He was
succeeded by Marcian (451-7), a soldier, who married Pulcheria, Theodosius’
sister. Both Marcian and Pulcheria sympathized with the two natures doctrine.
Chrysaphius was killed, and Eutyches exiled.
450 The Armenians in Persian territory asked for assistance from the Roman
Empire against their Persian overlords. Yezdegerd II, since his accession in 438,
had attempted to convert the Christian Armenians to Zoroastrianism. The
emperor Marcian, distracted by the Huns, was unwilling to go to war for the
Armenians. The war between the Armenians and the Persians continued until
Yezdegerd’s death in 453, when his successor, Firuz, granted them complete
toleration.
450 Near this year Auxentios the Persian left his post as a senior administrator
under the emperor Theodosius and founded an influential monastery in Bythinia.
451Fourth Ecumenical Council, held at Chalcedon, in the church of St. Euphemia
the martyr. The legates from Rome presided. Dioscorus was deposed, though
not on doctrinal grounds. The dyophysite leaders were restored, but Nestorius
himself was condemned as a heretic. (Theodoret of Cyrrhus was restored, on
the condition that he repudiate his anti-anathemas against Cyril.) Leo’s Tome
was received and pronounced to be orthodox. The council also accepted two of
Cyril’s letters, but not his Twelve Anathemas. There was reluctance in the East
to add a new creed, but one was drafted at Leo’s representatives’ insistence.
The creed of the Council of Chalcedon:
CHURCH HISTORY - 84
“In agreement, therefore, with the holy fathers, we all unanimously teach that
we should confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same Son, the same
perfect in Godhead and the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man,
the same of a rational soul and body, consubstantial with the Father in Godhead,
and the same consubstantial with us in manhood, like us in all things except sin;
begotten from the Father from before the ages as regards his Godhead, and in
the last days, the same, because of us and because of our salvation, begotten
from the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, as regards his manhood; one and the same
Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, made known in two natures without confusion,
without change, without division, without separation, the difference of the
natures being by no means removed because of the union, but the property of
each nature being preserved and coalescing into one prosopon and one
hypostasis - not parted, or divided into two prosopa, but one and the same Son,
only-begotten, divine Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets of old and
Jesus Christ Himself have taught us about him and the creed of our fathers has
handed down.”
The prosopon is the thing’s external aspect or form as an individual, while
hypostasis is concrete subsistence or existence as an individual. The phrase
“without confusion” was used by Nestorius, who was concerned to protect
Christ’s divine nature being viewed as suffering, growing or changing.
Perhaps because the creed is so Antiochene (it does not use Cyril’s phrase
“natural union” for instance, though one would think “one hypostasis” does the
same job), a large portion of the Eastern church began to drift away as
“Monophysites.”
The modern Alexandrian (Coptic) church considers this a
misnomer, and prefer something like “miaphysites,” believing in one composite
nature after the union.
They hold that Chalcedon was unneeded from a
theological perspective and was largely a power play by the emperor and the
bishop of Rome.
When the bishop of Rome’s representatives were absent, the council reasserted
Constantinople’s rights as a patriarchate, with equal privileges to Rome, second
in standing to Rome, because Constantinople is the new Rome. The patriarch of
Constantinople was to ordain the metropolitan bishops of the dioceses of Pontus,
Asia, and Thrace, and bishops from those dioceses among the barbarians. The
metropolitans, with his provincial bishops, were to ordain new provincial bishops.
451 Theodoric I, commanding a combined Visigothic, Burgundian and Roman
force, repulsed Attila at the battle of Chalons.
452 Mamertus, bishop of Vienne in France, instituted the Rogation Days after
storms, pestilence, and barbarians laid waste to his diocese and city. The
Rogation Days were Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday
(Ascension Day), which is the 40th day after Easter. Rogation means ‘asking,’
and it is a time for asking God’s blessings on the crops, for a plentiful harvest.
453 Attila died.
454 Hilary, bishop of Arles, asserted that the church of Gaul was independent of
Rome. The Western emperor Valentinian III told Aetius, the provincial governor,
“if any bishop summoned to trial before the bishop of Rome shall neglect to
come,” he was to force him.
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455 The Vandals under Genseric sacked Rome.
destruction and massacre.
Leo I prevented wholesale
457 Marcian, Eastern Roman emperor, died. Proterius, Dioscorus’ dyophysite
successor at Alexandria, was torn to pieces by a violent mob. The see at
Alexandria was occupied by the Monophysite Timothy Aurelian. Leo I wrote to
the new Eastern emperor (Leo I, 457-74) in favor of Chalcedon and his Tome,
adding that “by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration the emperor needs no human
instruction, and is incapable of doctrinal error.”
458 Gennadius (458-71) patriarch of Constantinople. Gennadius had refuted
Cyril’s anathemas. After Chalcedon, he interpreted the council’s terminology in
an Antiochene fashion, avoiding the terms Theotokos and using prosopon instead
of hypostasis for the union of natures.
~465 During the second half of the fifth century, the Roman calendar was
adopted in Constantinople. The beginning of the liturgical year was moved from
23 September to 1 September.
465 A major fire that swept through Constantinople in this year had been
predicted to the emperor by both Elisabeth of Thrace, abbess of the convent of
St. George, and Daniel the Stylite (d. 493). Elisabeth was a noted healer and
exorcist.
465Severus born (d. 538). He became the Monophysite bishop of Antioch.
Some have ascribed to him the works of the pseudo-Dionysius. See year 519
below.
466 Death of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus. As was common in the period between
Chalcedon and Justinian among Chalcedonians, Theodoret failed to identify the
subject of Christ’s suffering with the Word because that would imply, as he
thought, that the divine nature suffered.
Antiochene interpretations of
Chalcedon such as Theodoret’s and that of Patriarch Gennadius of
Constantinople, reinforced the suspicion among supporters of Cyril’s Christology and the fact that Nestorius himself had approved of Leo’s Tome - that Chalcedon
had been a defeat.
467 Hilary (461-67), bishop of Rome, died. He had set up a body of seven
ecclesiastical singers whose job it was to oversee the music for all services at
which Hilary presided. This group was known as the Schola Cantorum.
468 The Vandals conquered Sicily.
476 The end of the Western Roman Empire. Flavius Odoacer chose to be simply
the emperor’s lieutenant in the West.
476 Peter the Fuller, Monophysite bishop of Antioch, is said to have first
introduced the recitation of the creed into the liturgy during his tenure (476488). ). He may have intended to thus slight the confession of the Council of
Chalcedon. The first mention of the use of the creed as part of the mass in the
West is in a canon of the Council of Toledo in 589.
CHURCH HISTORY - 86
Peter is also known for the heretical addition to the Trisagion prayer, “Who was
crucified for us.” According to St. John of Damascus, the addition effectively
added a fourth person to the Trinity.
478 The tomb of St. Barnabas was discovered at Salamis in Cyprus. According
to tradition, Barnabas had been stoned to death. The feast of St. Barnabas
(June 11) commemorates the discovery of his tomb.
479 War between the Ostrogoths and the Roman empire.
generally successful. War ended in 483.
The Goths were
480-81 Clovis became king of the Salian Franks. He later converted to Orthodox
Christianity under the influence of his wife, Clotilde, a Burgundian princess, and
Remigius, bishop of Rheims. See 496 below.
482Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, (471-89) wrote a formula to end the
Monophysite schism called the Henoticon. It approved Cyril’s Twelve Anathemas,
condemned both Nestorius and Eutyches (see 444), did not mention the number
of natures (whether one or two), denounced “those who make either a division or
a confusion or introduce a phantasm,” and condemned “any heresy whether
advanced at Chalcedon or elsewhere.” It was promulgated on the authority of
the emperor (Zeno the Isaurian, 474-91) alone without a council of bishops, but
was signed by the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. The churches of the
East were again in harmony.
484Schism over the Henoticon (484-520).
Simplicius, patriarch of Rome,
excommunicated Acacius and the Roman emperor Zeno at a synod in Rome.
Zeno was more concerned with keeping Egypt and Syria loyal, and Simplicius
could rely on the support of the Gothic king Theodoric (an Arian) in Italy (see
488). The schism over the Henoticon was ended in 520.
485 Death of Proclus (410-485), the last great pagan Neo-Platonic philosopher,
and head of Plato’s Academy in Athens.
485 Philoxenus of Mabbug (440-523), supported by Peter the Fuller, patriarch of
Antioch (see 476), became bishop of Hierapolis (Mabbug). Philoxenus opposed
the council of Chalcedon. He wrote, “There is no nature without person, just as
there is no person without nature.”
To allow Him two natures was, for
Philoxenus, equivalent to asserting the existence of two persons in Christ.
488 To protect his back as he put down a revolt in Syria, Zeno sold out Odoacer
and turned Italy over to the Ostrogoth Theodoric.
(The Ostrogoths were
descended from the Greuthingi.) The patriarch of Rome was relatively free of
the Roman emperor until 536.
492 Gelasius I (492-6) patriarch of Rome. He put an end to an “abuse” in the
churches of Calabria where communion was being given in only one kind. He
also claimed that “the see of Peter has the right to loose what has been bound by
the decisions of any bishop whatever.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 87
Gelasius continued the battle against the Henoticon. In order to keep the
emperor out of church affairs, Gelasius enunciated a political theory in which the
church had auctoritas (legislative) authority, while the authority of the secular
rulers was potestas (executive power). In Roman law auctoritas was superior to
potestas, so Gelasius implied that the church was superior to the state. In fact,
he stated that the imperial potestas was derived from the papal auctoritas.
Gelasius’ theory was a driving force behind church-state relations until the
Aristotelian rediscovery in the twelfth century.
The Decretum Gelansianum, as the name implies, is often associated with
Gelasius. But some manuscripts ascribe it to Damasus (366-84), and others to
Hormisdas (514-23). Many modern scholars believe it to have been composed
by a cleric living in the south of Gaul early in the sixth century. The Decretum
contains a list of books approved to be read in the Church, along with a list of
apocryphal works. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and the first two books
of Maccabees are included in the list of approved works.
Gelasius also introduced a litany of intercession, the Deprecatio, into the
beginning of the mass. He also introduced the Kyrie eleison, which had long
been a response in litanies, into the mass as a processional preface. Gregory the
Great later eliminated the Deprecatio litany itself on non-festal days, leaving only
the responses - Kyrie eleison – reducing them to nine in number, and changing
the center three to Christe eleison.
494 Gelasius changed the pagan festival of the Lupercalia into the feast of the
Purification.
495 Macedonius (495-511) patriarch of Constantinople.
During his time,
Constantinople was largely isolated - in opposition to the Monophysite emperorr
Anastasios (491-518) and the Monophysites of Egypt and Syria, and disdained by
Rome because Acacius was still commemorated in the liturgy in spite of
Simplicius’ excommunication of him in 484. In alliance with the Acoematae
(non-sleeping monks) Macedonius opposed the Monophysites’ interpolation of
“who was crucified for us” into the Trisagion (see 476 above). [According to Fr.
John Meyendorff, the interpolation does not constitute a problem if the Trisagion
is viewed as a hymn to the incarnate Word. The Chalcedonian opposition to
theopaschite formulae made it easy for the Monophysites to paint them as
Nestorians. In fact, John II, bishop of Rome, called the Acoematea “Nestorians”
in his correspondence with the emperor Justinian in 533-34.]
Macedonius condemned Philoxenus of Mabbug (see 485) as a heretic.
Anastasios, however, supported Philoxenus in his effort to replace Chalcedonian
bishops with Monophysites.
496 Clovis, kind of the Salian Franks, baptized, adopting the Orthodox Christian
faith rather than Arianism, as had been common for the Germanic tribes.
496 A decree from Gelasius, bishop of Rome, in this year included a list of
recommended and banned books. This is an early step toward the Index of
Forbidden Books (see 1559).
498 Symmachus and Laurentius fought each other for the office of bishop of
Rome. Laurentius withdrew in 506.
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498 Pope Symmachus (498-514) introduced the Gloria into the liturgy in Rome.
See 301+ above. Its use was limited to liturgies celebrated by bishops on
Sundays and the feast days of martyrs. Priests were eventually allowed to
include it in celebrations of the mass: in the twelfth century, this freedom was
extended to Sundays other than Easter.
500 At about this time, due to the barbarian invasions, the jurisdiction of the
bishop of Rome was effectively confined to central and southern Italy.
The Sixth Century
501 During this century, inhumation replaced cremation in Northern France (as
seen in evidence from the grave yard at Hordain).
506 At the Armenian council of Dvin, that church rejected the ruling of Chalcedon
on the nature of Christ.
From that point on, the Armenian church was
Monophysite in Christology.
There were Monophysite bodies in Egypt (the Copts), Ethiopia and Syria (later
known as the Jacobites - see 542/43) also.
506/7 (508?) The first Monophysite Syriac Bible (known as the Philoxeniana) was
commissioned by Bishop Philoxenus of Mabbug (Hierapolis - see 485, 495).
Philoxenus collaborated with his auxiliary bishop Polycarp.
At a certain point in his career, Philoxenus wrote to denounce the opinion of a
certain Stephen Bar Sudaili of Ephesus that the punishment of the wicked was
not eternal.
Stephen, who spent his closing years in a monastery near
Jerusalem, is thought by some to have been the moving force behind the
resurgence of Origenism in Palestine during the sixth century. He has also been
proposed as the author of the works of Pseudo-Dionysios.
507/8 The emperor Anastasios (491-518) wrote to Clovis, king of the Salian
Franks, making him an honorary consul. This is indicative of the east Roman
diplomatic efforts among the Germanic kingdoms during this era.
Clovis
celebrated this honor by donning the purple costume of consul and tossing coins
to a crowd in Tours as he enacted the “Adventus” ritual of the Roman emperors.
The occasion for Anastasios’ congratulatory letter was Clovis’ victory over the
Visigoths at Vouille.
(The Salian Franks had become Orthodox, while the
Visigoths were still Arians at this time.)
508-11 The monk Severus, later patriarch of Antioch, agitated against Chalcedon
in Constantinople.
511 The Monophysite patriarch of Constantinople, Timothy, following the
example set by Peter the Fuller (see 476 above) introduced the Nicene Creed
into the liturgy in that city.
511 Clovis, king of the Salian Franks, presided over a church council at Orleans.
512 Philoxenus of Mabbug was involved in a theological dispute at a synod that
met in Sidon.
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512 A collection of forged letters to Peter the Fuller (see 476 above) was
published in this year. The first letter of the collection, in a fashion that was
typical of Chalcedonians of this era, stated that Christ’s sufferings could be
attributed to his human nature alone. Chalcedonian denial of theopaschite
formulae, in accordance with Antiochene Christology, continued to provide the
Monophysites with ammunition.
512 Severus became patriarch of Antioch, after the Emperor Anastasios had
deposed the incumbent. Modern theologians generally hold that Severus’
(Monophysite) Christology was simply that of Cyril. Like Cyril, Severus used the
terms nature and hypostasis as synonymns. Christ, he held, was “out of” two
natures, but the union of the two implied that there is now only one. Where
Chalcedon taught that each nature kept its own way of being, for Severus such
terminology implied that there were two actual beings in Christ, something he
was unwilling to admit. Severus wrote: “One is the agent, the incarnate Word.
One is the activity. But the works - what is done by the activity - are varied.”
In his criticism of Chalcedon, Severus pointed out that the council had failed to
identify the hypostasis of the union of natures with the pre-existent Logos. The
fact that many supporters of the council refused to admit that one of the Trinity
suffered in the flesh reinforced Monophysite rejection of the council. Before he
was deposed as patrarch of Antioch in 518, Severus himself deposed Epiphanius,
the bishop of Tyre, for repeating one of Theodoret’s arguments against
theopaschism.
Severus criticized the extreme Monophysitism of Julian of Helicarnassus. One
aspect of the dispute dealt with original sin. In Julian’s view, original sin involved
human nature in corruption, and his Christology was designed to shield Christ
from it. Julian taught that Christ’s body was incorrupt from the moment of His
incarnation, not from His resurrection. Christ was homoousios with unfallen
Adam, but not with us in our fallen state. Severus referred to Julian as a
Manichee. For Severus, and the Christian East as a whole, original sin does not
involve the transmission of guilt, but rather of mortality. It is not, in itself, a
state of sin, but a condition that Christ came to repair.
514-18 An apology for the council of Chalcedon written by John Philoponus (the
Grammarian), an Alexandrian, appeared during this time. John asserted that
Christ must be consubstantial to both God and man. He maintained that Christ’s
humanity never existed without his divinity, but that the two together constituted
a single hypostasis - which he also termed “nature” as Cyril oof Alexandria had
done.
Without doubt, John admitted Cyril’s theopaschite formulae.
As a
philosopher, John developed an interpretation of Aristotle in the light of Christian
revelation. He wrote commentaries on several of Aristotle’s works.
516 Sigismund (516-23) kind of the Burgundians.
During his reign, the
Burgundians renounced the Arian heresy and became Orthodox.
517 A synod at Epaone in Burgundy forbade the clergy to hunt.
CHURCH HISTORY - 90
518 Justin I (518-527) became Roman (Byzantine) emperor. Justin, under the
influence of his nephew Justinian, pursued a reconciliation along Chalcedonian
lines. The schism over the Henoticon ended (520). In order to appease
Hormisdas, the bishop of Rome, Justin had the Eastern Patriarchs signed the
following statement (drafted by Hormisdas).
“The first condition of salvation is to keep the norm of the true faith and in no
way deviate from the established doctrine of the Fathers. For it is impossible that
the words our Lord Jesus Christ who said, ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my Church’ (Matt. 16:18), should not be verified. And their truth has
been proved by the course of history, for in the Apostolic See the catholic religion
has always been kept unsullied... And so I hope I may deserve to be associated
with you in the one communion which the Apostolic See proclaims, in which the
whole, true, and perfect security of the Christian religion resides. I promise from
now on those who are separated from the communion of the catholic Church,
that is, who are not in agreement with the Apostolic See, will not have their
names read during the sacred mysteries. But if I attempt even the least
deviation from my profession, I admit that, according to my own declaration, I
am an accomplice to those whom I have condemned. I have signed this my
profession with my own hand and have directed it to you, Hormisdas, the holy
and venerable pope of Rome.” [The concern relative to commemorating those
who disagree with Rome could have been motivated by Macedonius’ actions - see
495 above.] The Formula of Hormisdas was accepted in Constantinople, being
read with the understanding that the Apostolic See in view is the common
property of Rome and Constantinople. The Formula of Hormisdas was accepted
in Constantinople, being read with the understanding that the Apostolic See in
view is the common property of Rome and Constantinople. According to Denny’s
Papalism (referenced in Moss’ The Old Catholic Movement) the other
patriarchates of the East refused to sign this statement, and were reconciled
through a different agreement.
518 Severus, Monophysite bishop of Antioch, was deposed. He removed to
Alexandria where he became the leader of a Monophysite faction. Severus died
there between 538 and 542, but not before a visit to Constantinople that ended
in 536.
523 The Jews of Yemen, under Yusuf Dhu Nuwas, massacred the Christian
population of that country. They were revenged by Elesbaan, King of Abyssinia,
who conducted a terrible slaughter of Jews in Yemen.
523 The Roman emperor Justin I issued an edict against Arianism.
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524 Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (~470-524) executed at the order of the
Ostrogoth king Theodoric.
Boethius may have been suspected of having
conspired with the Justin I, the Orthodox Roman Emperor, perhaps to end the
schism over the Henoticon.
(Theodoric was an Arian, and it was to his
advantage that the Orthodox Roman population of Italy (roughly 90% of the
total) view the Empire to the east as heretical.) While in prison, Boethius wrote
his most important work, The Consolation of Philosophy. It is said to be the
most influential book in the western Church during the medieval period, after the
Bible. The Consolation transmitted the main doctrines of Platonic philosophy to
the Middle Ages. Boethius’ solution to the supposed conflict between God’s
foreknowledge and human freedom, contained in Book Five of the Consolation,
relies upon a distinction between conditional and simple necessity. It was
considered authoritative for centuries. “[T]here are two kinds of necessity: one
is simple, as the necessity by which all men are mortals; the other is conditional,
as in the case when, if you know someone is walking, he must necessarily be
walking. ... God sees as present those future things which result from human
free will. Therefore, from the standpoint of divine knowledge these things are
necessary because of the condition of their being known by God; but, considered
in themselves, they lose nothing of the absolute freedom of their own natures.”
Boethius also tranlated Aristotle’s Organon and Porphyry’s Introduction to the
Categories of Aristotle into Latin.
525 The Pascal Tables of Dionysios Exiguus (the Small) appeared about this
year. They were an attempt to settle the question of the date of Easter for both
East and West. His tables, predicting Pascha for the years 532-626), employed a
19-year cycle, and were grounded in St. Cyril of Alexandria’s tables. They
eventually replaced those of Victor of Acquitaine in the West. This occurred at
Rome in the 630s. Dionysios, an eastern monk, Scythian by birth, had come to
Rome at the behest of bishop Gelasius (492-96), and had been employed
translating Greek documents for the papal archive. He also invented the Anno
Domini system for counting the years. According to modern scholarship, his
system is in error – the birth of Jesus being fixed variously from 2 to 8 B.C. (See
year 731.)
525 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, ordered John I (523-26), bishop of Rome,
to travel to Constantinople as his ambassador, with orders to convince Justin to
retract his 523 edict against Arianism. John was the first bishop of Rome to visit
Constantinople.
526 When John I came to Ravenna after his unsuccessful mission to
Constantinople, Theodoric imprisoned him, where he died, probably of starvation.
526 Ephrem of Amida (526-44) became patriarch of Antioch.
Ephrem’s
Christology was similar to that of Leontius of Jerusalem (see 532 below), and
influenced both Justinian and the Fifth Ecumenical Council. He observed the fact
that the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”)
was viewed by the Monophysites as a hymn to the Lord Jesus Christ, while
Chalcedonians saw it in reference to the Holy Trinity. Hence, Peter the Fuller’s
addition (see 476 above) was logical to the Monophysites and problematic to
Chalcedonians.
526 An earthquake struck Antioch in Syria causing widespread damage.
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527Justinian (527-565) Roman emperor. In one of his edicts, Justinian referred
to the patriarch of Constantinople as “the head of all other churches.”
Apparently, the title “patriarch” began to be used of the bishops of the larger
cities during Justinian's reign - though these bishops had enjoyed a certain
influence over broad areas surrounding their cities since before the council of
Nicea.
527-32 War between the Persian and Roman empires.
529Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery at Monte Cassino in Central Italy.
Justinian closed the university of Athens, replacing it with a Christian university.
Damascius, the last Scholarch, travelled to Persia with six other Neo-Platonic
philosophers. They returned to Athens in 533. The closing of the university
signals the end of pagan Neo-Platonic philosophy. (Justinian's decree had
forbidden city council funds to be used to hire pagans in education.)
529Council of Orange (Auriculum). Taught that (a) as a result of Adam’s
transgression both death and sin have passed to all his descendants; (b) man’s
free will is so weakened that he cannot believe in or love God without the
assistance of grace; (c) the Old Testament saints owed their merits to grace, not
any natural good; (d) the grace of baptism enables all Christians to accomplish
all that’s needed for salvation; (e) predestination to evil is to be anathematized;
and (f) in every good action the first impulse comes from God, and it is this
impulse that causes us to seek baptism and, with God’s help, fulfill our duties.
529 Note on the “Glory Be.” St. John Cassian had mentioned in his Institutes
(Book II), on the subject of nocturnal prayers, that the custom in Gaul was to
repeat the Glory Be at the end of each Psalm. In the East, it was sung once, at
the end of all of the Psalms. The Greek form of this doxology translates as,
“Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and
unto ages of ages, amen.” In this year, the words “as it was in the beginning, is”
were added just before “now” by the Council of Vaison, “after the example of the
apostolic see.”
529 Five thousand people killed due to an earthquake at Antioch in Syria.
Justinian bankrolled the city’s reconstruction.
529 A revolt broke out in Samaria in the summer of this year, provoked by the
destruction of some Samaritan synagogues as part of Justinian’s program of
repression. The Samaritans, under a certain Julian, massacred Christians, then
attempted (unsuccessfully) to convince the Persians to invade Palestine.
530 Seven thousand people killed due to an earthquake in Laodicea. Again the
emperor provided funds for reconstruction from the treasury.
530 Justinian conducted a persecution of pagans in Constantinople. The property
of many of the accused was confiscated.
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531 St. Sabbas, the founder of the Laura of Mar-Sabbas, arrived in
Constantinople in April and asked the emperor to intervene against the current
abbot, Nonnus, and his followers, who were promoting Origenism. Justinian
acted in 542 (see below - some authorities say this was in 543).
St. Sabbas died the following year (532). He had become a monk in Cappadocia,
travelling on pilgrimage to Palestine in 457. In around 483, he began a monastic
community in the Kidron gorge, northwest of the Dead sea. Altogether, he
established 14 monasteries and four hospices in southern Palestine. St. Sabbas
was also an opponent of Monophysite Christology.
531 Abbot Nonnus’ (see 531 immediately above) principal lieutenant, Leontius of
Byzantium, traveled from the Mar-Sabbas monastery near Jerusalem, where he
had lived since ~520, to Constantinople, to participate in a synod considering the
Christological dispute. Leontius’ most famous work, Three Books Against the
Nestorians and the Eutychians, was likely written between this year and 542,
when Justinian condemned Origenism. For Leontius - as typical with Origenists Christ was the intellect that had not faallen before the beginning of creation, the
one who remained in an “essential union” with the Logos. In his view, the
passion took place in the flesh of Christ after his soul had freely chosen to take
on human nature in order to restore it. He used the term ousia to refer to simple
existence, “not the what, not the how.” Thus “one according to ousia” meant
unity of existence, which is how Leontius understood the union of the divine and
human in Christ. Leontius identified the hypostasis with the individual - an
individual separate from others of the same nature, but perhaps uniting distinct
natures (such as the body and soul in a human) in a common being. Leontius’
key contribution to Christology is the concept of enhypostaton, a thing existing
within a hypostasis. Both Nestorians and Eutychians had assumed that no
nature could exist except in a hypostasis that shared that nature - one
hypostasis meant one nature; two natures meant at least two hypostases. For
Leontius, the subject of the union among the Logos, the unfallen soul, and the
fallen human nature, was the single hypostasis, the incarnate Christ.
531 In the summer of this year, the empress Theodora convinced Justinian to
end the persecution of the Monophysites. Groups of monks were recalled from
exile.
532 The Nika Revolt. The original Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) was
burned down by the rioters, along with the Chalke (the bronze-doored building
through which one entered the Imperial Palace), the Senate House, the Church
of Holy Peace, the Church of Saint Theodore Sphoracius, the Church of Saint
Aquilina, the hospitals of Eubulus and Sampson, and the Baths of Alexander.
The revolt was suppressed when Goth and German soldiers under Belisarius and
Mundus slaughtered 3500 to 4000 rioters in the Hippodrome.
532 Construction began on Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
The project took
five years [532-537] to complete, and on December 27, 537, Patriarch Menas
consecrated the magnificent church.
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532 Leontius of Jerusalem, long misidentified with Leontius of Byzantium (see
531), wrote on Christology between this year and 536. He completed the
thought of Chalcedon by stating that the same hypostasis, the Word, who unified
the two natures in Christ also suffered - hypostatically, in his human nature.
“The Logos is said to have suffered according to the hypostasis, for within his
hypostasis he assumed a passible essence besides his own impassible essence,
and what can be asserted of the essence can be asserted of the hypostasis.”
532 Collatio cum Severianis. Early in his reign (and again, later) Justinian
violently persecuted the Monophysites. But in around 531, he adopted a policy
of tolerance. The Empress Theodora arranged a conference, over which Justinian
presided, inviting six Chalcedonian and six Monophysite representatives. The
Monophysites quoted many fathers and “Dionysius the Areopagite, all of whom
assert that there is one nature of God the Logos after the union” in support of
their position. This is the earliest known reference to the works of the PseudoDionysius. Hypatius, bishop of Ephesus, pointed out that these works could not
be genuine. Severus himself had been invited, but declined to attend. Between
531 and 536, many famous Monophysites visited Constantinople and were wellreceived by the royal family.
533 Justinian’s general Belisarius defeated the Vandals in North Africa at
Tricameron. The Vandal kingdom was destroyed.
533 The emperor Justinian issued an edict declaring that one of the Trinity
suffered in the flesh. He sought confirmation of this view from John II, patriarch
of Rome (533-35).
534 At Justinian’s request, John II, patriarch of Rome, condemned the Sleepless
Monks (see 448-84) as Nestorians for their opposition to Justinian’s theopaschite
formula of 533.
534 The exiled patriarch of Antioch, Severus (see 518), visited Constantinople at
the invitation of the emperor and empress.
535 In June, the patriarch of Constantinople, Epiphanius, died. The Empress
Theodora, a staunch Monophysite, maneuvered to have Anthimus (Anthem of
Trebizond) appointed patriarch. Anthimus, a closet Monophysite, was deposed at
a council in 536.
535 On 14 November, at the insistence of Theodora, an edict was issued that
banished pimps and keepers of brothels from all major cities of the empire.
535 A large volcanic eruption caused temperatures to remain colder than normal
through 550. 535-536 was one unceasing winter. The volcano responsible for
this temporary change in climate may have been Krakatau.
A drought began in Mongolia. Defeated by the Turks, the Avars began their trek
toward Europe in 552, arriving around 560. Their migration resulted in the
movement of more people into what remained of the Empire. There is some
speculation that the Avar humiliation at the hands of the Turks was due to the
drought, brought on by the volcanic eruption 535: the Avar economy was based
on horses, which have less efficient digestive systems and are more susceptible
to changesin climate than cattle, raised by the Turks.
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536 The Roman empire recaptured southern Italy and Sicily, including Rome.
The exarchate of Ravenna was established in 568.
536 The church historian Evagrius born (536-600). In his Church History, he
attested to the practice of communion among the very young: “when there
remained a good quantity of the holy portions of the undefiled body of Christ our
God, for uncorrupted boys from among those who attended the school of the
undermaster to be sent for to consume them.”
536 On 19 February, the bishop of Rome, Agapetus I (535-36) visited
Constantinople as an ambassador from Theodahad, the Gothic king of Italy, to
avert an impending war between the Empire and the Goths over the murder of a
lady named Amalasuntha. She had been the only daughter of Theodoric, and an
ally of Justinian. Agapetus refused to recognize Anthimus as patriarch, given the
latter’s support for Monophysitism. Justinian’s hands were tied, since he desired
the support of the Roman populace in the upcoming war with the Goths. In
March, Anthimus was deposed. On 21 April, Agapetus died as he prepared to
return to Italy, and the Monophysites in the city celebrated openly.
Synod endemousa under Patriarch Menas. The new patriarch of Constantinople,
Menas, held a council, which convened on May 2, to confirm the deposition of
Anthimus and to try the leading Monophysites in the city - Zooras, Peter of
Apamena, and Severus. Anthimus himself couldn’t be located. Theodora had
hidden him in the gynaeceum of the Imperial Palace, where none but women and
eunuchs were allowed. He was discovered there after Theodora’s death in 548,
and Justinian treated him graciously. Peter of Apamena and Zooras were
anathematized, as was Severus, on 6 August. He fled to Egypt again in exile.
(Synods had been meeting in Constantinople since before the council of
Chalcedon in 451. They began not as regular but occasional gatherings, as the
emperor would summon the bishops sojourning (endemousa) in the city. Hence
the name Synod endemousa.)
The persecution of Monophysites in Syria resumed, and it began in Egypt, where
Theodora’s appointee, Theodosius, patriarch of Alexandria, was deposed in favor
of a monk named Paul, who brutalized the Monophysites there. Paul set out to
remove heretical bishops from his patriarchate. He was opposed by the deacon
Psoes, whom Rhodon, the Augustal Prefect, had arrested and tortured. When
Psoes died from this treatment, the empress Theodora initiated an investigation
(see 542).
After the death of Pope Agapetus, the empress Theodora determined to make
Vigilius, the papal nuncio in Constantinople, the next bishop of Rome. She
provided him with 200 pounds of gold and letters to Belisarius and his wife
Antonina. Theodora intended for Vigilius to restore Anthimus and perhaps to
denounce Chalcedon. Unfortunately for her plans, King Theodahad of the Goths
had already had Silverius elected pope.
Two Palestinian Origenists, Theodore Ascidas and Domitian, attended the synod
of 536. Domitian was later appointed bishop of Ancyra. Theodore Ascidas
became bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and came to exert so much influence
over Justinian that Patriarch Menas and the papal representative, Pelagius,
sought to break it.
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537 Belisarius deposed Silverius, bishop of Rome. A document had been forged
to prove that Silverius had conspired with the Goths. Silverius was given the
opportunity to restore Anthimus as patriarch of Constantinople.
When he
refused, he was exiled to Patara in Lycia, and Vigilius became bishop of Rome
(March 29, 537).
539 The Goths razed Milan, reportedly killing 300,000 adult males and giving the
women to their Burgundian allies as slaves.
540 Belisarius conquered Ravenna.
540 Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (490-585) founded a monastery at
Vivarium. He had his monks copy manuscripts of both Christian and pagan
authors. In 519, Cassiodorus had published his Chronicon, a history of the world
from Adam to 519. His De Anima provides an overview of scripture and the
Church fathers, then describes the seven liberal arts. This was widely read
during the Middle Ages.
540-45 War between the Persian and Roman empires.
540 The Kutrigurs (a Bulgar tribe) captured thirty-two Roman fortresses in
Illyricum and raided as far as Constantinople.
542 A Monophysite Syrian monk named John (John of Ephesus), after gaining
the favor of the empress Theodora, became bishop of Ephesus. John wrote an
ecclesiastical history in three volumes (~585), a work on the lives of the Eastern
saints, and was responsible for the baptism of over 70,000 pagans in Asia Minor.
He and his followers built 98 churches and twelve monasteries in Asia, Caria,
Lydia and Phrygia.
542 The patriarch of Antioch, Ephraim, held a synod that condemned Origen’s
doctrines. The Origenists, in reply, convinced the patriarch of Jerusalem to strike
Ephraim’s name from the diptychs. Menas, patriarch of Constantinople, and
Pelagius, the papal representative, convinced Justinian to act, resulting in
Justinian’s condemnation.
542Justinian published a condemnation of Origenism and the mystical
speculations of Evagrius (see above, year 375). This to quell the controversy in
Palestine surrounding the teachings of the Orgenist New Laura community (see
531 above, St. Sabbas), which had become a dispute between the patriarchates
of Antioch and Jerusalem.
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Justinian’s anathemas against Origen: “(1) Whoever says or thinks that human
souls pre-existed, i.e., that they had previously been spirits and holy powers, but
that, satiated with the vision of God, they had turned to evil, and in this way the
divine love in them had died out and they had therefore become souls and had
been condemned to punishment in bodies, shall be anathema; (2) If anyone says
or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God the Word
before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be anathema; (3) If
anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was first formed in
the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there was united with it God the
Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be anathema; (4) If anyone says or
thinks that the Word of God has become like to all heavenly orders, so that for
the cherubim he was a cherub, for the seraphim a seraph: in short, like all the
superior powers, let him be anathema; (5) If anyone says or thinks that, at the
resurrection, human bodies will rise spherical in form and unlike our present
form, let him be anathema; (6) If anyone says that the heaven, the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the waters that are above heavens, have souls, and are
reasonable beings, let him be anathema; (6) If anyone says or thinks that Christ
the Lord in a future time will be crucified for demons as he was for men, let him
be anathema; (8) If anyone says or thinks that the power of God is limited, and
that he created as much as he was able to compass, let him be anathema; (9) If
anyone says or thinks that the punishment of demons and of impious men is only
temporary, and will one day have an end, and that a restoration will take place
of demons and of impious men, let him be anathema.
“Anathema to Origen and to that Adamantius, who set forth these opinions
together with his nefarious and execrable and wicked doctrine and to
whomsoever there is who thinks thus, or defends these opinions, or in any way
hereafter at any time shall presume to protect them.”
The patriarch of Jerusalem, who had previously struck Ephraim’s name from the
diptychs, signed Justinian’s condemnation of Origenism.
542 The bubonic plague hit Constantinople. Several tens of thousands died.
Apparently, cooler temperatures due to the volcanic eruption in 535 allowed the
plague to become active in fleas in Africa. These were carried north with the
ivory trade.
542 A trial was held in Gaza over the Psoes affair (see 536). The papal
representative, Pelagius, presided. Paul, patriarch of Alexandria, was deposed,
and the prefect Rhodon was beheaded, though he produced 13 letters from the
emperor authorizing his actions.
542/43 Jacob Barradaeus (~490-578) ordained bishop of Syria, with the support
of the empress Theodora. After persecution of the Monophysites resumed in
536, she received from Sheik Harith ibn Jabala, king of a small buffer state , who
informed her that the Christians in his realm, mostly Monophysites, were being
destroyed by the imperial commissioners. They were in need of a bishop to
ordain men who had died at the hands of their oppressors. Theodora chose
Jacob because of his ability to disguise himself as a beggar - the name
Baradaeus means “rags” or “tatters.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 98
Baradaeus was instrumental in organizing those who repudiated the council of
Chalcedon. Hence, they came to be termed “Jacobites.” These Monophysites
had set up their own rival patriarch of Antioch. They called the Chalcedonian
Orthodox “Melchites,” meaning “Emperor’s Men.” He is said to have wandered
Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia on foot, ordaining 80,000 priests, 89 bishops,
and two patriarchs.
545 Slavic tribes raided Thrace, but were turned back by Narses.
545 The emperor Justinian suppressed the Manichaeans. He attempted to
convert those who had been arrested, but they remained firm in their beliefs.
They were then tortured and killed; their bodies were buried at sea, and their
property confiscated.
545 John Scholasticus (~503-77) compiled a collection of canon law (the
“Collection of Canons”) for the Church in the east. His compilation is the earliest
that has been preserved. John served as patriarchal legate from Antioch in
Constantinople until 565, when he was named patriarch of Constantinople by
Justin II.
546 Prompted by a suggestion by Theodore Ascidas, Justinian promulgated the
Edict of Three Chapters. (The ‘Three Chapters’ later came to refer to the works
condemned, not to this edict.) This edict condemned the Letter of lbas of Edessa
to Maris, praising Theodore of Mopsuestia; the works of Theodore himself; and
the writings of Theodoret of Cyrrhus against Cyril. To make it plain that
Chalcedon was inconsistent with Nestorianism, it also asserted that the
Chalcedonian definition should be interpreted in this light. Theodoret and Ibas
had been restored to their sees by the council of Chalcedon, so, unlike Theodore,
they were not personally condemned. The theological effect was to emphasize
the unity of Christ’s nature(s).
547 After the death of Abbot Nonnus in this year, the Origenists were split into
two camps: the Isochristoi of New Laura, who held that in the restoration man
will be united with God as Christ is; and the Protoktistai or Tetradites of the
Laura of Firminus, about whom little is known.
547 Cosmas Indicopleustes had finished his Christian Topography by this year. A
merchant and wide traveler, Cosmas was likely a Nestorian. Taking the Old
Testament temple as a model for the universe, Cosmas’ Topography presented a
planar earth much larger than the sun, which circled a conical mountain to the
north. This cosmology is said to be in agreement with and subordinate to
Nestorian philosophy. A debate raged in Alexandria over Cosmas’ work, and he
was refuted by John the Grammarian (see 514-18) and his views had very little
influence.
548 Slavs again raided the Balkans, penetrating to Dyrrachium (on the Adriatic
coast of Albania).
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548Vigilius, patriarch of Rome (537-55), who had been brought to
Constantinople the previous year, signed a condemnation of Theodore personally
as a heretic and the Three Chapters - thus agreeing with Justinian’s edict of 546.
In 551 Vigilius withdrew this condemnation. For his condemnation of Theodore
and the Three Chapters, Vigilius himself was condemned by the bishops of Milan,
Ravenna, and Aquileja. The metropolitan of Aquileja in Istria took advantage of
the schism with Rome to stretch his control over Grado. Istria remained out of
communion with Rome until the council of Pavia in 698.
548 Death of the Empress Theodora.
549 Samaritans and Jews staged a bloody revolt at Caesarea. They murdered
Stephanus, proconsul of Palestine. Their leaders were subsequently executed.
The Samaritans, who had recently been reported to have adopted Christianity,
openly resumed their traditional worship.
549 John of Ephesus (see 542) denounced a group of senators, grammarians,
sophists, lawyers and physicians. They were accused of paganism, tortured,
whipped, and imprisoned.
549 Seventy-one bishops met at Orleans. They reaffirmed the bishop of Rome’s
earlier condemnation of Eutyches and Nestorios.
550 An African council excommunicated Vigilius, bishop of Rome, for his
pronouncement in 548 agreeing with Justinian’s Edict of Three Chapters (546).
550 Bodies were buried in the north of France with an east-west alignment from
about this date.
551 The Kutrigurs rampaged through the Balkans.
552 Silk worms introduced from China.
552 Justinian gave command of his forces in Italy to his chamberlain, the eunuch
Narses. Narses destroyed the Ostrogoth kingdom in the battle of Taginae. The
Goths charged the Byzantine’s pikemen, while Byzantine archers attacked from
the flanks. The battle for Italy had left the countryside barren and depopulated.
553Fifth Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople. Eutychius, patriarch of
Constantinople, presided.
164 bishops attended, including 14 from Africa.
Justinian, with Vigilius still captive, succeeded in having the council condemn
Origen and the Three Chapters, and Vigilius eventually was forced to assent to
this. He was subsequently excommunicated by the African clergy for his betrayal
(as it was interpreted) of Chalcedon. Vigilius died on his way back to Rome.
CHURCH HISTORY - 100
From Session VII of the Acts of the Council, addressed to Vigilius: “If your
blessedness is willing to meet together with us and the most holy Patriarchs, and
the most religious bishops, and to treat of the Three Chapters and to give, in
unison with us all, a suitable form of the Orthodox faith, as the Holy Apostles and
the holy Fathers and the four Councils have done, we will hold thee as our head
and primate... if you have condemned them [the Three Chapters], in accordance
with those things which you did before, we have already many such statements
and need no more; but if you have written now something contrary to these
things which were done by you before, you have condemned yourself by your
own writing, since you have departed from Orthodox doctrine and have defended
impiety. And how can you expect us to receive such a document from you?”
According to Norwich, Justinian sent a decree to the council that Vigilius’ name
should be struck from the diptychs, though he was careful to stress that he was
not severing communion with Rome itself.
To reinterpret Chalcedon in a way pleasing to the Alexandrians, the council gave
approval to the hypostatic union (Cyril’s natural union?). It also endorsed (in the
Tenth Anathema) the controversial liturgical formula, “that our Lord Jesus Christ
who was crucified in the flesh is True God.”
The Third Anathema (clarifying that the hypostasis of the Logos is He Who
Suffered - affirming theopaschism):
If anyone shall say that the wonder-working Word of God is one [Person] and the
Christ that suffered another; or shall say that God the Word was with the
woman-born Christ, or was in him as one person in another, but that he was not
one and the same our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, incarnate and made
man, and that his miracles and the sufferings which of his own will he endured in
the flesh were not of the same [Person]: let him be anathema.
From the Fourth Anathema:
As the word “union” has many meanings, the followers of the impiety of
Apollinarius and Eutyches, assuming the disappearance of the natures, affirm a
union by confusion. On the other hand the followers of Theodore and of
Nestorius, rejoicing in the division of the natures, introduce only a union of
relation. But the holy Church of God, rejecting equally the impiety of both
heresies, recognizes the union of God the Word with the flesh according to
synthesis, that is, according to hypostasis. For in the mystery of Christ the union
according to synthesis preserves the two natures which have combined without
confusion and without separation.
The Fifth Anathema (clarifying Chalcedon’s use of the expression “one
hypothesis,” and repudiating the Nestorian sense):
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If anyone understands the expression “only one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ”
in this sense, that it is the union of many hypostases, and if he thus attempts to
introduce into the mystery of Christ two hypostases, or two Persons, and, after
having introduced two persons, speaks of one Person only out of dignity, honor,
or worship, as both Theodosius and Nestorius insanely have written; if anyone
shall calumniate the holy Council of Chalcedon, pretending that it made use of
this expression [one hypostasis] in this impious sense, and if he will not
recognize rather that the Word of God is united to the flesh hypostatically, and
that therefore there is only one hypostasis or only one Person, and that the holy
Council of Chalcedon has professed in this sense the one Person of our Lord
Jesus Christ: let him be anathema. For since one of the Holy Trinity has been
made man, viz.: God the Word, the Holy Trinity has not been increased by the
addition of another person or hypostasis.
From the Sixth Anathema:
... if anyone shall call her [the virgin Mary] manbearer or Christbearer, as if
Christ were not God, and shall not confess she is truly Godbearer [Theotokos]...
let him be anathema.
From the Seventh Anathema:
If anyone using the expression “in two natures” ... shall take the expression ...
so as to divide the parties, or recognizing the two natures in the only Lord Jesus,
God the Word made man, does not content himself with taking in a theoretical
manner the difference of the natures which compose him (which differences are
not destroyed by the union between them, for one is composed of the two and
the two are in one), but shall make use of the number [two] to divide the
natures or to make of them two Persons properly so called: let him be
anathema.
From the Eighth Anathema:
If anyone confesses that the union took place out of two natures and speaks of
the one incarnate nature of God the Word and does not understand ... that out of
the divine and human natures, when union by hypostasis took place, one Christ
was formed; but from these expressions tries to introduce one nature or essence
of the Godhead and manhood of Christ; let him be anathema.
The Twelfth Anathema explicitly condemns two interpretations of scripture. The
first condemned interpretation is that Christ, when he said “Receive the Holy
Spirit,” merely made a sign and did not actually give the Holy Spirit. The second
is that Thomas was not referring to Christ when he said, “My Lord and my God,”
but that he was simply making an exclamation, expressing his wonder at the
resurrection.
Unfortunately for Justinian, and the subsequent history of the Roman Empire, the
Monophysites were not appeased.
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Origen was condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council, and many of his
doctrines were explicitly listed as cause for anathema: (1) the pre-existence of
souls; (2) that created beings were originally only rational souls, who later took
bodies to themselves because they tired of the sight of God; (3) that celestial
bodies are rational beings become material through love of evil; (4) that men are
such rational souls in whom the love of God had grown cold, and so taken
bodies, and that demons are like men in this, but more evil; (5) that humans
may become angels or demons; (6) that demons are either fallen angels or fallen
human souls, and that the world was created not by the Trinity but by a spirit
who became Christ through unfailing devotion to God; (7) that this Christ clothed
himself with the form of all classes of fallen rational beings, including man, to
restore them; (8) that Christ is an intelligence (nous) united to God the Word,
and only called God because he is united with the Logos, and the Logos is only
called Christ because he is united with the intelligence; (9) that the intelligence
was incarnate, descended into hell and ascended into heaven, and not the Logos;
(10) that Christ’s resurrection body was ethereal and shaped like a sphere, and
the bodies of all those resurrected will be as well; (11) that at the future
judgment all matter will be destroyed, leaving only spirit; (12) that all rational
beings are united with God in the same was as the intelligence is, and that the
kingdom of Christ shall have an end; (13) that the Christ is not different from
other rational beings and that all will be placed at God’s right hand as they were
in their pre-existence; (14) that hypostases and numbers and bodies will
disappear and all things will be united into one; and (15) that, all things will be
spirit, and the life of the spirits in the end will be as in the beginning. [This is a
point of some uncertainty: the fifteen condemnations of Origen may actually be
the product of a local synod held in Constantinople in 544.]
553 The Franks sent an embassy to Constantinople. This embassy included
Angles in order to impress the emperor with the Frankish king's influence over
Britain. This from the Greek historian Procopios.
554 Eighteen bishops of the Nestorian church in Persia under Patriarch Joseph
reaffirmed Duophysitism against the Fifth Ecumenical Council’s denunciation of
the Three Chapters. Thirty years later, the Nestorians condemned Justinian as a
heretic.
555? Death of St. Romanos. He had been a deacon in the Church of the
Resurrection in Berytus (Beirut). During the reign of the emperor Anastasius I
(491-518), he moved to Constantinople. Romanos had a harsh and rasping
voice. During a religious retreat on Christmas Eve, he was given a vision of the
Virgin Mary, who held a scroll, which she told him to eat. Romanos did so, and
was immediately blessed with a wonderful singing voice. He later composed
hymns which were essentially sermons put to music. Romanos has been termed
“the greatest ecclesiastical poet of all ages.”
556 Pelagius became patriarch of Rome. Served through 561. Pelagius was
strongly opposed to the condemnation of the Three Chapters, but Justinian
appointed him patriarch anyway, judging, rightly, that he would change his mind.
Pelagius supported the decisions of the Constantinople (553).
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From the time of Pelagius until 741, the name of the person elected bishop of
Rome was sent to the emperor in Constantinople or to his exarch in Ravenna for
confirmation. The church in Rome accompanied this name with a large payment,
effectively tribute.
557 The Alans relayed to Roman officials in Lazica (the east end of the Black
Sea) an offer of alliance from the Avars, a Turkic/Mongolian tribe that had moved
west into the region north of the Caucasus, fleeing Turkish enemies in Central
Asia.
559 Pagans in Constantinople ridiculed - marched in a mock procession. Theiir
books were burned.
559 The Kutrigurs crossed the frozen Danube and attacked Macedonia, Thessaly,
Gallipoli and Constantinople. They were defeated by Belisarius’ forces and
returned to their homeland, near the Don. Justinian induced the Utigurs, a rival
Bulgar tribe living east of the Don, to attack the Kutrigurs as they retreated.
Both tribes were greatly weakened by the war that resulted.
560+ The Suevis renounced Arianism and became Orthodox. The Suevis lived in
the northwestern Iberian peninsula.
561 Julius, bishop of Rome (337-352), had founded a certain church in Rome. In
this year, that church was dedicated to St. Philip and St. James. The dedication
ceremony is the origin for the feast day for those saints - May 1.
561 The Avars (having absorbed the Kutrigurs and Utigurs) moved to a position
north of the lower Danube.
563 The Irish monk Columba (520-97) founded a monastery on Iona. Columba
had been educated and ordained to the diaconate by St. Finnian of Clonard.
Before traveling to Iona, Columba had founded monasteries at Derry, Durrow
and, possibly, Kells.
563 A council meeting in Braga decreed against the Priscillianists (see 380) that
Satan was not an uncreated being. It also attacked the notion that he is “the
principle and substance” of evil. Instead, the council asserted, he “was originally
a good angel created by God.”
565 Death of Justinian.
565 John Scholasticus named patriarch of Constantinople by the emperor Justin
II. John first negotiated with the Monophysites, then acted in accordance with
the emperor Justin II’s (565-78) desire to repress them.
565 The emperor Justin II refused to pay tribute to the Avars.
565 The emperor Justin II, at some point during his reign, decreed that the birth
of the Savior should be celebrated on 25 December throughout the empire. It is
thought that, at this time, the church in Jerusalem finally adopted 25 December
as Christmas Day.
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567 Allied with the Lombards (who were then living in Pannonia, west of the
Tisza) the Avars defeated the Gepids and conquered their territory in eastern
Pannonia and Dacia.
568 The Lombards took control of northern Italy, an event that would give
Gregory the Great, the future bishop of Rome, a small measure of independence
from the Roman emperor. The Lombard movement into Italy was a result of the
Avar migration of the 550s.
The Avars invaded Dalmatia. The emperor Justin II (565-578) bought peace for
80,000 pieces of silver.
568 The exarchate of Ravenna established.
572 The Lombards conquered south-central Italy, creating the duchies of
Spolento and Benevento. The Byzantines retained control of a corridor between
Ravenna and Rome, splitting the northern Lombard kingdom from its southern
duchies.
572 The Monophysite bishop John of Ephesus (507-586) was imprisoned by the
emperor Justin II. See 542 above.
573 The Persians invaded the Roman Empire, seizing the city of Dara on the
Tigris. Among the 292,000 captives taken were included 2000 beautiful Christian
virgins the Persian emperor, Chosroes, intended to present to the Turkish Khan.
(This is the first mention of the Turks in the history of the West.) At a river, the
Christian virgins separated from their captors to bathe, then drowned themselves
rather than enter the Khan's harem.
573 Death of Emilian. He had been a hermit in the Spanish Rioja, then priest in
Berceo. Emilian is said to have rid the home of the nobleman Honorius of an evil
spirit who would soil dishes with the bones and dung of animals. Emilian also
cured the nobleman Sicorius' slave girl of blindness and he exorcised several
others of evil spirits. Emilian's hermitage later grew into a famous monastery Saint Emilian of the cowl.
577 The West Saxon Ceawlin won a battle at Deorham, cutting the Britons in
Wales off from the Britons to the South. There is speculation that the Britons
were driven back in this century due to a significant population loss. The Celts of
Britain remained in commercial contact with the Roman empire after the
withdrawal of the legions in 409. Apparetnly, though these contacts, the plague
spread (see 542 above) to Britain.
578 Death of Jacob Baradaeus.
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579 A revolt by Baalbek defeated. Some who were tortured revealed that
several high-ranking officials were involved in pagan cults. The governor of
Edessa, Anatolios, was implicated. He was accused of having commissioned a
portrait ostensibly of Christ, but actually of Apollo, so that he could
surreptitiously worship the pagan god. The governor in turn accused the
patriarch of Antioch, Gregory, and the patriarch of Alexandria’s representative,
Eulogios, of human sacrifice. A recent earthquake at Daphne, near Antioch, was
thought to have been caused by this crime. Gregory traveled to Constantinople
and lavished gifts on the emperor (Maurice) and the court. He was permitted to
return to his see. Anatolios, on the other hand, was condemned to death.
580Maximos the Confessor (580-662) born.
580 The Lombards destroyed the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino. The
monks fled to Rome.
580+ The exarch of Ravenna, Smaragdus, launched a raid on the schismatic
Istrians (see 548 above). He captured many of the clergyand forced them to
accept the decrees of the Fifth Ecumenical council.
581 The emperor Tiberius II Constantine (578-582) established an elite corp of
15,000 barbarians, which eventually developed into the Varangian Guards.
581 The Slavs invaded the Balkans.
582 The Avars captured Sirmium by trickery. An inscription from the ruins of
Sirmium reads, “Lord Jesus, help the city and smite the Avars and watch over
Romania and the writer. Amen.”
582 John “the Faster” (died 595) became patriarch of Constantinople.
works of charity and his ascetic practice, he is regarded as a saint.
For his
582 Athens was sacked by Slavic invaders.
582 Death of Felix, bishop of Nantes. He was responsible for the conversion to
Christianity of the Saxons in the area north of the Loire. These Saxons traded
with their counterparts in southeastern England.
584 Singidunum (modern Belgrade) captured by the Avars.
585 The Armenian bishop Kardutsat, with seven priests, went on a missionary
trip to the steppes north of the Caucasians. He succeeded in baptizing many
Huns and in translating books into their language. Though Kardutsat was very
likely a Monophysite, the Roman emperor sent him supplies.
Kardutsat’s
successor, the bishop Maku, taught the Huns the rudiments of agriculture.
585+
Columbanus (545-615) left the monastery in Bangor, Ireland, and
established monasteries in Gaul: Annegray, Luxeil, and Les Fontaines, all near
the Vosges mountains. He later relocated across the Alps in Italy, founding a
monastery in Bobbio. Monasticism and missionary activity were connected in
this era. Columbanus wrote of his “vow to make” his “way to the heathen to
preach the gospel to them.”
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586 The Slavs laid siege to Thessalonica.
587 The Slavs moved into Epirus, Thessaly, Attica, Euboea and the Peloponnese.
587 The British archbishops of London and York fled to Wales.
587 (588?) A synod meeting in Constantinople ascribed the title “Ecumenical
Patriarch” to John IV (John “the Faster”, 582-95) of Constantinople because it
was the capital of the “ecumenical” empire.
587-9 The Visigoths renounced the Arian heresy and became Orthodox, as the
Burgundians (see 516) and Suevis (see 560+) had already done, and as the
Lombards were to do (see 619 and 636 below). The Visigoth king Leovigild had
repented of Arianism on his deathbed in 586; his successor, King Recared, then
received instruction in the Orthodox Christian faith. Their conversions were at
least partially due to the efforts of Leander, bishop of Seville.
589The third Council of Toledo added the filioque clause to the Creed of
Constantinople (381). This addition gradually spread in the West, and was finally
incorporated into the liturgy at Rome, probably in 1014 at the coronation of
Henry II, with unhappy consequences. This is the first mention in the West of
the creed as an element of the liturgy. See note on Peter the Fuller, 476.
This council also introduced the creed into the liturgy in the West, placing it
before the Lord’s prayer, where it remains in the Mozarabic rite. The creed was
not used in the mass at Rome until the eleventh century.
589? John of Biclar, a Visigoth, founded a monastery at Biclar in Spain. John
was one of the last Westerners to have an understanding of classical culture,
having spent seven years in Constantinople in the 560s and 570s following the
classical syllabus. John later became bishop of Gerona
590 Gregory the Great bishop of Rome (590-604).
Gregory chafed when John, patriarch of Constantinople, termed himself the
Ecumenical Patriarch: “It is very difficult to hear patiently that one who is our
brother and fellow bishop should alone be called bishop, while all others are
despised. But in this pride of his, what else is intimated but that the days of
Antichrist are already near? For he is imitating him who, despising the company
of angels, attempted to ascend to the pinnacle of greatness.” Gregory called
himself the “servant of the servants of God.”
In a letter to John of Constantinople, Gregory wrote, “Certainly Peter, the first of
the apostles, himself a member of the holy and universal Church, Paul, Andrew,
John,-what were they but heads of particular communities? And yet all were
members under one Head. And (to bind all together in a short girth of speech)
the saints before the law, the saints under the law, the saints under grace, all
these making up the Lord's Body, were constituted as members of the Church,
and not one of them has wished himself to be called universal. Now let your
Holiness acknowledge to what extent you swell within yourself in desiring to be
called by that name by which no one presumed to be called who was truly holy.”
(Book IV, Epistle XXVI)
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In Gregory’s day, baptism in Rome was by triple immersion: “Now we, in
immersing thrice, signify the sacraments of the three days' sepulture; so that,
when the infant is a third time lifted out of the water, the resurrection after a
space of three days may be expressed. Or, if any one should perhaps think that
this is done out of veneration for the supreme Trinity, neither so is there any
objection to immersing the person to be baptized in the water once, since, there
being one substance in three subsistences, it cannot be in any way reprehensible
to immerse the infant in baptism either thrice or once, seeing that by three
immersions the Trinity of persons, and in one the singleness of the Divinity may
be denoted.” (Book I, Epistle XLIII)
In a letter to Eulogius, the patriarch of Alexandria, Gregory asserted the
existence of three sees of St. Peter: “Your most sweet Holiness has spoken
much in your letter to me about the chair of Saint Peter, Prince of the apostles,
saying that he himself now sits on it in the persons of his successors. And indeed
I acknowledge myself to be unworthy, not only in the dignity of such as preside,
but even in the number of such as stand. But I gladly accepted all that has been
said, in that he has spoken to me about Peter's chair who occupies Peter's chair.
And, though special honour to myself in no wise delights me, yet I greatly
rejoiced because you, most holy ones, have given to yourselves what you have
bestowed upon me. For who can be ignorant that holy Church has been made
firm in the solidity of the Prince of the apostles, who derived his name from the
firmness of his mind, so as to be called Petrus from petra. And to him it is said
by the voice of the Truth, To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven
(Matth. xvi. 19). And again it is said to him, And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren (xxii. 32). And once more, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou Me? Feed my sheep (Joh. xxi. 17). Wherefore though there are many
apostles, yet with regard to the principality itself the See of the Prince of the
apostles alone has grown strong in authority, which in three places is the See of
one. For he himself exalted the See in which he deigned even to rest and end the
present life. He himself adorned the See to which he sent his disciple as
evangelist. He himself stablished the See in which, though he was to leave it, he
sat for seven years. Since then it is the See of one, and one See, over which by
Divine authority three bishops now preside, whatever good I hear of you, this I
impute to myself.” (Book VII, Epistle XL) He also refers to Antioch as an
“Apostolic See” (Book V, Epistle XXIX).
In the another letter to Eulogius (Book VIII, Epistle XXX), in reference to the
patriarch of Constantinople’s title, he added, “in the preface of the epistle which
you have addressed to myself who forbade it, you have thought fit to make use
of a proud appellation, calling me Universal Pope. But I beg your most sweet
Holiness to do this no more, since what is given to another beyond what reason
demands is subtracted from yourself. For as for me, I do not seek to be
prospered by words but by my conduct. Nor do I regard that as an honour
whereby I know that my brethren lose their honour. For my honour is the honour
of the universal Church: my honour is the solid vigour of my brethren. Then am I
truly honoured when the honour due to all and each is not denied them. For if
your Holiness calls me Universal Pope, you deny that you are yourself what you
call me universally. But far be this from us. Away with words that inflate vanity
and wound charity.
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Gregory was confused when he heard of Eudoxius the Heretic, of whom no
records were found in Rome. He also had never heard of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical
History.
He seemed to view his role as ultimate corrector of errors: “as to his saying that
he is subject to the Apostolic See, if any fault is found in bishops, I know not
what bishop is not subject to it. But when no fault requires it to be otherwise, all
according to the principle of humility are equal.” (Book IX, Epistle LIX)
But elsewhere, he seemed less liberal and moderate: “Inasmuch as it is
manifest that the Apostolic See is, by the ordering of God, set over all Churches”
(Book III, Epistle XXX); and “For as to what they say about the Church of
Constantinople, who can doubt that it is subject to the Apostolic See, as both the
most pious lord the emperor and our brother the bishop of that city continually
acknowledge? Yet, if this or any other Church has anything that is good, I am
prepared in what is good to imitate even my inferiors, while prohibiting them
from things unlawful.” (Book IX, Epistle XII)
Gregory also fixed the beginning of Lent in the West on Ash-Wednesday, 46 days
before Easter. This gave 40 days of fasting, by leaving out the Sundays. A
period of fasting prior to Easter is an ancient custom. Irenaeus (~ 202)
mentioned various lengths of fast, 1 day, 40 hours, 2 days or more. Tertullian,
the historians Sozomen (3 week fast) and Socrates (6 week fast) also mention it.
Also, Nicea, canon 5.
591 Pope Gregory I criticized the bishops of Arles and Marseilles for allowing the
forced baptism of Jews in Provence.
591 End of a war between the Roman Empire and Persia.
595 A Roman Benedictine monk named Augustine was chosen by Gregory the
Great to be the apostle to the English. Arrived in England in 597.
On diversity in the mass, Gregory wrote to Augustine: “But it pleases me, that if
you have found anything, either in the Roman, or the Gallican, or any other
church, which may be more acceptable to Almighty God, you carefully make
choice of the same, and sedulously teach the church of the English, which as yet
is new in the faith, whatsoever you can gather from the several churches.”
In this year, Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, forbade deacons to act as chief
singer at the mass. Gregory founded two new institutions (orphanotrophia) to
train the required singers.
596 The emperor Maurice recaptured Singidunum from the Avars.
597 St. Columba of Iona died on June 9 of this year.
597 About 10,000 Englishmen were baptized at Christmas. This from a letter
from Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, to the pope of Alexandria.
598 Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, wrote to the bishop of Terracina
expressing dismay over the report he had heard that people in that region were
worshipping sacred trees.
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599 After a synagogue in Caraglio, northern Italy, had been desecrated, Pope
Gregory I wrote to insist that the Jews be compensated for their loss.
~600 Cyrius, Catholicos of Georgia, rejected Armenian Christology and accepted
Chalcedon (451).
600 Sometime during the 6th century the scratch plough was replaced in
northern Europe by a plough with a moldboard, allowing it to cut into thick soil.
The new plough first appeared in western Europe in the Rhineland and the Siene
basin. This eventually led to a population rise in northern Europe. In the early
centuries of Christian history, the population was most dense along the eastern
Mediterranean.
Because of Justinian's conquests earlier in this century, the Roman Empire in the
West still included Sicily, north Africa to Gibraltar, and part of southeastern
Spain. Thus Constantinople continued to exert considerable influence in the
West.
From around this year until approximately 1200, there were few literate laymen
in the West. In the East, by contrast, literate laymen continued to serve as
administrators of the Roman Empire.
The Seventh Century
601 Augustine became first Archbishop of Canterbury.
601 During this century, the use of breathing and accent marks in Greek
manuscripts began to be general.
Frankish names were rare for bishops in Gaul before the end of the sixth century.
During the seventh, they became increasingly common as Frankish leaders
exerted control over the episcopate.
602 Phokas (602-610) Roman emperor.
602 Pope Gregory the Great wrote to the populace of Rome to prohibit the
observance of Saturday as a sabbath, “following the perfidy of the Jews.”
603 Columbanus charged by a synod of Frankish bishops with the “error” of
keeping Easter according to Celtic usage.
604+ Due to Constantinople’s inability to defend Thessalonike, Slavs began
settling nearby from about this year.
607 In an effort to improve relations with Rome, the emperor Phokas bestowed
the title “Universal Bishop” upon Boniface III (607), bishop of Rome.
608 Boniface IV (608-15), bishop of Rome, requested imperial permission to
convert the Pantheon, a pagan temple in Rome, into a church, St. Maria Rotunda
or ad Martyrs, dedicated in 609. The Pantheon had been built by the emperor
Hadrian between 118 and 128 A.D.
CHURCH HISTORY - 110
609 Patriarch Anastasios II of Antioch was lynched by Jews from that city. The
incident was due to Phokas’ attempt to convert the Jews to Christianity and
Jewish support for the Persian invaders (see 611 below).
610Herakleios (610-41) (Heraclius) became Byzantine emperor.
Until
Herakleios’ time, Latin was used in government administration and in the army in
the Byzantine empire. Herakleios ended this anachronistic use of Latin, replacing
it with Greek.
Sergios I was named patriarch of Constantinople (610-638).
He assisted
Herakleios’ campaigns of 622-28 with donations from the Church treasury, and
by acting as regent while Herakleios was in the field. (See also 619 below.)
610 Columbanus, removed from his monastery in Luxovium by conspiring
enemies in the court of Theodoric II, travelled to Switzerland and preached to
the Alemanni. About this time, Columbanus criticized both Vigilius and Boniface
IV, the contemporary bishop of Rome, for supporting heretics by subscribing to
the rulings of the Fifth Ecumenical Council.
611 On 20 April, Constantinople was struck by an earthquake.
611 The Persians captured Antioch.
612/14 Columbanus founded a monastery at Bobbio. Columbanus’ followers,
along with Celtic monks, built monasteries and engaged in missionary activities
in northern Europe during this era.
612 Herakleios’ wife, the empress Fabia-Eudokia, died of epilepsy. She left two
children - her son became Constantine III, who ruled briefly in 641. Herakleios
married his neice, Martina, over the protests of patriarch Sergios.
613 Aethelfrith of Northumbria won a battle at Chester, cutting Wales off from
the Britons to the north. By this time, the invaders have conquered 2/3 to 3/4 of
the island.
614 The Persians under King Chosroes II invested Jerusalem on April 15. On
May 5, the Persians forced their way within the walls, with the help of Jews.
With their churches and houses in flames around them, the Christians were
indiscriminately massacred, some by the Persian soldiers but many more by
Jews. Sixty thousand perished and thirty thousand more were sold into slavery.
The Persians carried off the “True Cross.”
Of the churches in Palestine, only the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was
spared. The apparent reason was the mosaic over the door, depicting the Wise
Men from the East in Persian costume.
616 (619?) The Persians captured Egypt.
616 Thomas of Harkel translated the Bible into Syriac. His is the only complete
New Testament in Syriac. Harkel employed critical signs in his text to indicate
variant Greek readings. This translation is about one century later than the
Philoxeniana (see 507/8 above), two centuries later than the Peshitta (see 400),
and three later than Vetus Syra (see 300).
CHURCH HISTORY - 111
617 The Persians captured Chalcedon. The Persian campaigns in the period 61419 contributed to the decline of self-governing cities and the emergence of a
more rural economy in Asia Minor.
617 Donnan of Eigg murdered, along with his monks.
619 King Sisebut of Visigothic Spain wrote to Adaloald, king of the Lombards,
encouraging the latter to abandon Arianism. Sisebut extolled the benefits that
had accrued to the Visigothic kingdom since it had accepted Orthodoxy.
619 The provincial council of Seville was scandalized by the teaching of a certain
bishop Gregory, a Syrian, and an advocate of the akephaloi - clerics with no
acknowledged head.
619 During an Avar raid on the outskirts of Constantinople, Sergios had church
plate melted. The resulting coin was used to buy peace from Chagan, the Avar
chieftan. Possibly during this raid, Sergios had the relic of the Virgin’s robe
temporarily transferred from Blachernai, outside the city walls, to Hagia Sophia.
Later, it was returned with vigils and procession. After the fall of Egypt, the
shortage of bread forced the Roman government to halt free bread distributions,
and prices were fixed at three folleis per loaf. John “the Earthquake,” an official
in charge of distribution, attempted to charge eight folleis per loaf. Sergios
himself had the city prefect arrest John and resume distribution at the legal
price.
620+ The Visigoths succeeded in conquering the Roman province in Spain.
622-681 The Monothelete controversy
622 The emperor Herakleios, while on a visit to Armenia, and in order to shore
up support among the Monophysites in Syria and Egypt, suggested that the
divine and human natures in Christ, while quite distinct in his person, had but
one will (thelema) and one operation (energeia).
Sergios, patriarch of
Constantinople, was a strong supporter of this doctrine of one theandric energy
of Christ.
623 A Frankish merchant named Samo assisted the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia
and Slovakia in their revolt against their Avar overlords. He led them to form a
kingdom which stretched from the upper Elbe to the central Danube. This
rebellion, likely instigated by Herakleios, weakened the Avars, who were about to
move upon Constantinople.
625Honorius I (625-38), patriarch of Rome, accepted the doctrine of one
theandric energy in Christ.
626 Persians and Avars besieging Constantinople were completely repulsed by
the Roman emperor Herakleios. About this time, Maximos Confessor, (580-662)
former protosecretary to Herakleios and later monk and abbot at Chrysopolis,
departed Constantinople.
CHURCH HISTORY - 112
Maximos was the principle theologian opposed to the Monothelete heresy. He
was the most sophisticated analyst of Chalcedon in antiquity. Maximos taught
that the monophysite doctrine implied a pessimistic view of human nature.
Chalcedon, on the other hand, safeguarded the autonomy of mankind and
granted an independent status and positive value to the creation. The Christ
who is known in two natures is able to be a model for our freedom and
individuality, and for a mystical union with God in which man’s separateness as a
creature is respected.
In his time, Maximos stated, the Son, for the West, was not the cause of the
existence of the Holy Spirit, so that in this sense the Holy Spirit does not proceed
from the Son. Centuries later at the Council of Florence, the West would make
the claim that the Father and Son are both causes.
By about this year, the Balkans, apart from Constantinople, Thessalonica, and
several cities on the Adriatic Coast, had been lost to Slavic invaders. In the
opinion of some historians, by annihilating the Latin-speaking inhabitants of
Illyricum and imposing a barbarian barrier between Constantinople and the West,
the Slavic invaders of the late sixth and seventh centuries contributed greatly to
the cultural estrangement between East and West.
At roughly this time, Herakleios invited the Croats, a Slavic tribe then living in
Galicia, Silesia, and Bohemia, to settle in Illyricum. They were given the land
between the Drava and the Adriatic for ridding it of Avars. Similarly, the Serbs
were allowed to move from their homeland north of the Carpathians to a territory
east of the Croats. The emperor asked the bishop of Rome to send missionaries
to both groups, but it seems this effort had little lasting success.
627 Herakleios won a decisive victory over the Persians at Nineveh, shattering
the last of their armies. The eastern provinces, now largely Monophysite, were
reoccupied.
627 Paulinus converted Edwin, King of Northumbria, who was baptized on
Christmas day. Paulinus became the first bishop of York.
628 After pausing in Crete, Maximos Confessor arrived in North Africa.
629 Herakleios ceased using the title Imperator, employing Basileus instead.
This reflects the shift from Latin to Greek (see 610 above).
631 Herakleios appointed Kyros, bishop of Phasis in Colchis, patriarch of
Alexandria, with power to act as viceroy (dioiketes) of Egypt. Kyros began a tenyear persecution of the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Christians. The Coptic patriarch
Benjamin I (622-661) escaped into hiding in the desert, and, in an attempt to
discover Benjamin’s hiding place, Kyros had Benjamin’s brother Mina tortured,
then drowned in the Nile, tied in a sack full of stones. The division among
Christians no doubt aided the Islamic conquest of Egypt (639-641).
632 Death of Mohammed.
CHURCH HISTORY - 113
633 On the basis of the doctrine of one theandric energy in Christ, supported by
patriarch Kyros of Alexandria, a statement of union was signed between
Constantinople and a moderate group of Monophysites, the Theodosians, in
Alexandria, in June of this year. Sophronios, a monk of the monastery of St.
Theodosius in Jerusalem, who had accompanied the Byzantine chronicler John
Moschus in his travels, visited Alexandria and Constantinople to convince the
patriarchs to renounce Monothelitism. Afterwards, patriarch Sergios became less
enthusiastic in his monoenergism.
633 The Fourth Council of Toledo, meeting in the church of St. Leocadia,
comprised of 62 bishops meeting at the request of King Sisenand (ruled the
Visigoths from 631-36) asserted the statement of the Athanasian Creed that
“Whoever wants to be saved, it is necessary above all that he hold the Catholic
faith.” This is significant in the context of the Visigoths’ recent Arianism. Isidore
(560-636), archbishop of Seville from roughly 600, presided over this council,
which also insisted upon toleration for the Jews and took measures to increase
uniformity in the mass in Spain. In addition, the council ordered, “Let the priest
and the deacon communicate at the altar, the remaining clergy in the choir, and
the laity outside the choir.” Evidence suggests that the altar was screened from
public view in Spain during this period.
Isidore is best known for his Etymologies, an early encyclopedia very influential
during the Dark and Middle Ages, which stressed elements of classical education
such as the seven liberal arts. In Book 7 of that work, Isidore wrote, “The Father
alone is not from anything else, thus He alone is called uncreated; the Son alone
is by His nature from the Father, thus He alone is called created [sic]; the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, thus the Spirit alone is constituted
by them both.” Isidore, though respectful of the papacy, also emphasized the
independence of the Spanish church, and he viewed the Spanish monarchy as an
ascendant power in contrast to the declining Roman Empire, beset as it was by
Persians, Huns and Slavs. His disregard for Constantinople also comes though in
his refusal to term the bishop of Constantinople a patriarch, in his minimizing of
Justinian’s authority in De viris illustribus, and in his position that Constantine I
was an Arian. Isidore is even critical of the Eastern practice of using a silk cloth
(rather than linen) to cover the bread in the eucharist. Isidore’s influence in
later Western Christianity clearly facilitated the schism of 1054.
Isidore related that King Sisebut of Visigothic Spain had ordered all Jews in his
kingdom to accept baptism.
633/4 Sophronios (634-38) elected patriarch of Jerusalem. He sent a synodical
letter to Honorius and the Eastern patriarchs explaining the orthodox belief in the
two natures of Christ, as opposed to Monothelitism, which he viewed as a subtle
form of Monophysitism. He also composed a Florilegium (anthology) of 600 texts
from the Bible and the Greek church fathers in favor of the orthodox tenet of
Dyotheletism (two wills) in Christ.
634 The Saracens swept up the coast of Palestine as far as Caesarea.
thousand Christian, Jewish and Samaritan peasants were slaughtered.
Four
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634 Patriarch Sergios of Constantinople published a short document, the Psephos
(Decision), which forbade the mention of either one or two volitional principles of
activity (energy) in Christ.
Both Maximos the Confessor and patriarch
Sophoronios accepted this.
635 King Oswald of Northumbria requested the Scots send him a bishop to
convert his people. Aidan was sent, a monk of Hii or Iona, and established his
episcopal see on the island of Lindisfarne (Holy Isle).
635 Damascus fell to the Saracens. The Monophysites in Syria, persecuted for
years by the Roman authorities, supported the invaders.
636 Reign of Rothari (636-52), king of the Lombards. He was the last Lombard
king known to be an Arian.
636 Fall of Antioch to the Saracen invaders. Herakleios withdrew his forces from
Syria.
637 Jerusalem fell to the Arab invaders.
Sophronios negotiated civil and
religious liberty for Christians in exchange for tribute.
638 Herakleios issued his Ekthesis espousing the Monothelete doctrine (that
there is only one will in Christ) and setting it forth as the official doctrine of the
Church. The four eastern patriarchs gave their assent. But the Ekthesis was
vigorously opposed, notably by Maximos the Confessor.
Pyrrhos became patriarch of Constantinople (638-42, 53/4-?) upon Sergios’
death. Pyrrhos had been an advocate of Monothelitism and a close friend of the
emperor Herakleios.
639 Thousands died in Palestine of famine and disease caused by the Saracen
invasion, in which villages were destroyed and fields laid waste.
639 In December, the Saracen general Amr ibn al-Asi invaded Egypt with
between 3500 to 4000 soldiers.
639 John Climacus (579-649) chosen abbot of the monastery of Saint Catherine
on Mt. Sinai. He wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a work in 30 chapters which
describes the spiritual ascent toward moral perfection.
640 The Saracens conquered the port of Caesarea in Palestine. The caliph Umar
ordered a census of Palestine. All property (lands, livestock, trees, etc.) were
counted in order to impose a poll tax. In Iraq, Umar was to increase the tax by a
factor of 3 to 4 over what had been due the Persians.
641 The Arabs conquered Egypt, including Alexandria. In September, the
Saracen forces of Amr ibn Al-Asi entered Alexandria, completing their conquest
of Egypt. They burned the books of the library to heat the public baths. It was
said that the supply of books ran out after one year. Nevertheless, the initial
years of Muslim rule were favorable for the Coptic Christians, who were allowed
to practice their religion freely, and could build and repair churches without
interference. The early jizyah (poll tax) was no more onerous than the Imperial
taxes had been..
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The emperor Herakleios died on 11 February, blaming the Ekthesis on patriarch
Sergios. His eldest son, Constantine III, died on 25 May of the same year.
There is speculation that he was killed by his stepmother, Martina. Constantine
III’s son Herakleios became the emperor Constans II (641-68). (Constans II
was termed Pogonatus, “the bearded,” due to his luxuriant beard - though all
Roman emperors in this periodd wore beards.)
John IV (640-42), patriarch of Rome, condemned Herakleios’ Ekthesis, and the
doctrine of one will in Christ.
642 Patriarch Pyrrhos of Constantinople - an ally of Martina - replaced by Paul,
wwho opposed her, supporting Constans II in the succession battle of 641.
642 King Chindaswinth of Spain (642-53) ordered the death penalty for
Christians who worshipped as Jews.
643 The Saracens ransacked Tripoli.
643 Archbishop Sergios of Cyprus wrote to Theodore I (642-49), patriarch of
Rome, asking for his support in opposing the Monotheletes of Constantinople.
Sergios referred to the pope as the successor of St. Peter and the rock upon
which the Church is founded. In a letter written about this time, Maximos
Confessor wrote of “the very holy church of Rome, the apostolic see, which God
the Word Himself and likewise all the holy synods, according to the holy canons
and the sacred definitions, have received, and which owns the power in all things
and for all, over all the saints who are there for the whole inhabited earth, and
likewise the power to unite and to dissolve ...”
645 At a debate in Carthage, arranged by the exarch Gregory, Maximos
Confessor convinced Pyrrhos, former patriarch of Constantinople, to renounce
the Monothelite heresy. Pyrrhos later changed his mind and was reinstalled as
patriarch of Constantinople in 653 or 654.
646 A synod in Spain limited the retinue of a bishop to fifty. This eased the
burden on those who were required to host the bishop and his party.
647 Gregory, exarch of Carthage, proclaimed independence from Constantinople.
He was supported by the Chalcedonian populace. This rebellion ended when the
Arabs raided Carthage from Libya and killed Gregory (649). Carthage finally fell
to the Arabs in 705.
648 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Constans II, to quiet the intense
controversy caused by the Monothelete doctrine, issued an edict forbidding the
subject to be discussed. This edict, distributed by the patriarch Paul in Constans’
name, is known as the Typos. A papal legate in Constantinople, Anastasius, was
exiled to Trebizond for refusing to assent to the edict.
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649 Martin I (649-55), patriarch of Rome, in defiance of imperial policy,
condemned the Monothelete doctrine at the Lateran council in Rome. The
patriarchs Sergios, Pyrrhos, and Paul of Constantinople were anathematized,
along with Kyros of Alexandria. A florlegium of 161 extracts from orthodox
authors (only 28 of whom wrote in Latin) opposing Monothelitism was compiled.
One hundred and five western prelates were present at the synod, representing
Sicily, Africa, Sardinia, and Italy, though none were from north of the Alps or
Spain.
A large body of eastern monks attended as well, in addition to
representatives from eastern patriarchs.
Martin had the council’s findings
translated into Greek and sent to the emperor Constans II, requiring him to
repudiate the monothelite heresy.
Maximos Confessor attended this synod. From Rome, Maximos wrote of the
church there that “she has the keys of the faith and of the orthodox confession;
whoever approaches her humbly, to him is opened the real and unique piety, but
she closes her mouth to any heretic who speaks against the justice.”
649 King Recceswinth of Spain (649-54) forbade observance of the Passover, the
Old Testament dietary restrictions, and Jewism marriages. Jews were forbidden
to go to court against Christians or to give evidence against them in court.
649 The Saracens attacked Cyprus, killing or enslaving much of the populace.
653Bishop Martin I of Rome and Maximos Confessor were arrested by order of
the emperor Constans II. Martin was arrested by Theodore Calliopas, exarch of
Ravenna. Both were banished for treason in 655, apparently because of their
opposition to the Monothelites. Martin I was exiled to Crimea, where he died on
16 September 655.
653-58 A certain Wilfrid visited Rome as a pilgrim. After his return to England,
he became abbot of the monastery in Rippon. Later, he became bishop of York
(664). Wilfrid’s history demonstrates secular limitation of the bishop of Rome’s
influence in the Church.
655 Naval battle between the Romans and the Arabs off Phoenikos (modern
Finike) in Lycia. The Roman fleet was shattered, and Constans II barely
escaped.
656 The Caliph Othman was assassinated in Medina while reading the Koran.
The Arab world was in turmoil for the next five years, giving the Romans a brief
respite.
659 On her deathbed, Gertrude of Nivelles, daughter of Pepin I of France (the
mayor of the palace who died ~ 640), requested burial in wearing a plain linen
shroud. This ran contrary to the traditional (pagan) practice of a “furnished”
grave. Her example was copied. By the 750s, the practice of furnishing graves
against the needs of the dead in the afterlife had ceased in Francia.
661 By this year, the Franks had replaced all Roman bishops in Gaul with
Frankish bishops (see 601 above). St. Boniface described the Franks as:
“voracious laymen, adulterous clergy and drunkards, who fight in the army fully
armed and who with their own hands kill both Christians and pagans.”
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661/2 Maximos Confessor was recalled from exile in Thrace, tried, and sentenced
to mutilation. His tongue and his right hand were cut off to prevent his further
opposition to the Monothelites.
Maximos’ most significant theological contribution is perhaps his interpretation of
the works of the Pseudo-Dionysius along Orthodox lines, emphasizing both
Trinitarian theology and diophysite Christology. Maximos was a proponent of
apophatic approach to the knowledge of God. His works take up more space in
the Philokalia (see 1782 below) than do those of any other writer and are
concerned with the process of deification.
At the Council of Florence (1441), the Orthodox quoted Maximos to indicate in
what sense the filioque was understood in the West in the seventh century.
Maximos wrote, “the Romans do not affirm that the Son is the cause of the
Spirit, for they know that the cause of the Son and the Spirit is the Father, of
one by birth, and of the other by procession; but only show that the Spirit is sent
through the Son.” The Orthodox indicated that, if this were still the Roman
position, “then no further discussions are necessary, and the former union of
Churches can take place.” Unfortunately, the Western dogma had changed
dramatically by that time.
662 On August 13, Maximos Confessor died in exile in Lazica on the southeastern
shore of the Black Sea.
662 The emperor Constans II left Constantinople, initially intending to establish
his court in Rome.
662 Around this year, during the reign of their king Grimoald (ruled 662-71), the
Lombards in the Benevento region were worshipping the image of a snake; the
cult had endured from antiquity. St. Baratus had the snake idol melted down
into a paten and chalice.
663 Constans II visited Rome. He stripped the city’s churches of valuables taking even roof tiles from St. Maria ad Martyres.
664 The synod held at Whitby. Churches in the north of England (who had been
under the influence of Celtic evangelists) agreed to keep Easter on the date
established by Rome, in agreement with churches in the south evangelized from
Rome.
The Celts claimed their practice came from St. John, while the
southerners invoked Peter. King Oswy (of the Mercians) was convinced by the
argument that Peter held the keys to the kingdom of heaven: “lest, when I
come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to open
them, he being my adversary who is proved to have the keys.”
Curiously, it appeared the Celts celebrated Easter according to the agreement
made at Nicea in 325 (on the Sunday after the fourteenth day of the month
nearest the vernal equinox). They were unaware, however, that since Nicea
Alexandrian astronomers had found an error in the way the Jews calculated
Passover. The method for computing Easter had been modified in 525 so the
date always fell between March 22 and April 24, as it does to this day -- on the
first Sunday after the full moon that occurs upon or next after the vernal equinox
(March 21).
The appeals to apostolic authority on both sides were thus
erroneous.
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664 Wilfrid appointed bishop of York. He had advocated the Roman position at
Whitby earlier the same year.
664 A plague fell upon Essex. The king, Sigehere, and the people apostatized.
Bishop Jaruman of Mercia restored them to the faith.
666 Constans II granted the request of Archbishop Maurus of Ravenna, allowing
that city to consecrate its bishop without approval from Rome.
670 The authority of the Athanasian creed affirmed by a council in Toledo.
672 The Saracens attacked the islands of Cos and Rhodes, killing or enslaving
much of the populace.
673-5
747).
A synod at Saint-Jean-de-Losne condemned clerical hunting (see 517,
674 Benedict Biscop (~628-689/90), considered the father of Benedictine
monasticism in England, built the monastery of St. Peter in Wearmouth.
Benedict traveled frequently to Rome, obtaining instructions in monastic practice
and manuscripts, paintings, and relics for the monastery at Wearmouth and a
sister monastery at Jarrow. Together, these establishments comprised a leading
center for scholarship and art in Western Europe during this era. Biscop was
succeeded as abbot of Wearmouth by Coelfrith in 690.
674 The Saracens attacked Crete, killing or enslaving much of the populace.
678 Constantine IV (668-85) began to search about for a final resolution on the
Monothelite question. He wrote suggesting a general council.
Around this year, Agatho, bishop of Rome (678-81), sent a certain John, first
singer of the Schola Cantorum in Rome, to train students in church music at
Wearmouth, England.
678 Because of a squabble between the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore,
and King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, Wilfrid was expelled from his see at York. He
traveled to Rome to appeal to that city’s bishop. On the road, Wilfrid was
instrumental in the conversion of many Frisians (living in modern Holland) aided by the coincidence of unusually good fishing.
680 The Bulgars, who had crossed the Danube into Dobrudja (between the
Danube and the Black Sea) during the previous decade, defeated the Roman
forces sent out to expel them. From this point on, the Bulgars were permanent
residents south of the Danube.
680 King Ervig of Spain (680-87) forbade Jews from observing the Sabbath.
680 By about this time, the Lombards have been converted to Orthodoxy.
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680 In a letter prepared for the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Pope Agatho
interpreted Luke 22.31 as a reference to the doctrinal purity of the papacy and
the unique pastoral duties of popes. The passage reads: “Peter, Peter, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren.” For Agatho, it was clear that the church in Rome “has never erred
from the path of the apostolic tradition, nor has she been depraved by yielding to
heretical innovations, but ... remains undefiled unto the end, according to the
divine promise” of Luke 22.31. This is the first known interpretation of that
verse in support of papal claims. Earlier fathers, such as Chrysostom and
Ambrose, had treated it as a prophecy of Peter’s denial and repentance.
For
them, it had no connection to a supposed permanent role for him (or his
successors).
680 Wilfrid returned to York with a ruling from the bishop of Rome in his favor.
However, King Ecfrith imprisoned Wilfrid instead of reinstating him as bishop.
Wilfrid was released in 681 but exiled from Northumbria.
681Sixth Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople (the Third Council of
Constantinople). Anathematized Honorius, patriarch of Rome and deposed the
patriarch of Antioch, Makarios, for embracing the Monothelite heresy.
From the statement of faith adopted by the council:
“ ... believing our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, to be one of the Holy Trinity
even after the taking of flesh, we declare that his two natures shine forth in his
one hypostatis, in which he displayed both the wonders and the sufferings
through the whole course of his dispensation, not in phantasm but truly, the
difference of nature being recognized in the same one hypostasis by the fact that
each nature wills and works what is proper to it, in communion with the other.
On this principle we glorify two natural wills and operations combining with each
other for the salvation of the human race.
“... likewise [we] proclaim according to the teaching of the holy fathers that
Christ has two volitions or wills, and two natural operations without division or
change, without partition or co-mingling. And the two natural wills are by no
means opposed (as the godless heretics have said); but the human will is
compliant, and not opposing or contrary; as a matter of fact it is even obedient
to his divine and omnipotent will.”
This council was noteworthy for the extreme care taken to verify the authenticity
of documents cited. This care was in reaction to the fact that documents
pertaining to the Fifth Ecumenical Council read at the Sixth were found to be
forgeries.
Patriarch Makarios of Antioch and six other Monothelites were given permission
to appeal to Rome. Two of them were subsequently reunited with the Church.
Makarios and the other four were imprisoned in monasteries in Rome.
CHURCH HISTORY - 120
The patriarch of Jerusalem, Theodore, unable to attend this council, sent St.
Andrew of Crete (then Deacon Andrew) to represent him. As a boy, Andrew had
been unable to speak. In church one day, he prayed that God would heal him.
The moment he received communion, he began to speak, glorifying God. At the
council, Andrew displayed wisdom and knowledge, and afterwards he became
bishop of Crete. A poet, Andrew composed the “Great Canon” read during Lent
in Orthodox Churches.
684 The Maronites became an independent people when the armies of Justinian
II were defeated by John Maron (later patriarch of Antioch from 685-707).
685 The caliph Abd al-Malik (685-705) established Arabic as the official language
of the Umayyad empire. No other languages were permitted in government
administration.
686 Wilfrid returned to his see at York under King Ecfrith’s successor Aldfrith.
686-89 Sometime during this period, the Arab governor of Egypt, Abd al-‘Aziz ibn
Marwan, imprisoned the Coptic pope, Isaac (686-689), for intervening in a
dispute between the emperor of Ethiopia and the king of Nubia (both Christians).
The governor stripped the churches of crosses, especially those made from gold
or silver. He also fixed placards to the church gates, stating that Mohammed
was the apostle of Allah, and denying that Jesus was the Son of God.
Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan was succeeded by his son, al-Asbagh, who, guided by a
Copt named Benjamin, discovered and seized Coptic treasures. Al-Asbagh
extended the jizyah (poll tax) to monks, and added a 2000 dinars to the land tax
paid by bishops. A wave of conversion to Islam occurred during this time of
financial persecution. (Al-Asbagh is also reported to have spat on an icon of
Mary carried in procession at Helwan.)
686 The archbishop of Toledo, Julian, head of the church in Spain, composed a
work to defend against Jewish efforts to prove that Jesus had not been the
Messiah. It seems there was a flow of conversions to Judaism in Spain in spite of
the penalties of law (see 642, 649, 680).
687 Sergius I (bishop of Rome, 687-701) introduced a new form of litany to
Rome. The new litany style had been developed in Syria and involved invocation
of the saints and devotions to the Lamb of God and the Cross. Sergius was
himself from Syria. The Agnus Dei was one of the liturgies Sergius brought to
Rome. Sergius ordered that the Agnus Dei be sung by the clergy and people
during the mass, at the time of the breaking of the consecrated host. “Grant us
thy peace” replaced the final “Have mercy on us” about four hundred years later.
689 Late evidence of delayed baptism: King Cadwalla of Wessex was baptized
just before his death at age 30 while traveling to Rome.
690 Willibrord, who had been a monk at Wilfrid’s monastery in Ripon, asked
permission of Sergios I (687-710), bishop of Rome, to conduct a mission to the
continent. The pope furnished him with relics as well. Accompanied by eleven
companions, and protected by Pippin II and Charles Martel, Willibrord established
a monastery at Echternach (about midway between Rheims and Mainz).
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~ 690 A certain Rupert established the cathedral church in Salzburg. Salzburg
and Passau had been Roman forts, and it is possible that Christianity had
survived in those towns.
691/2 Abd al Malik imposed a poll tax on the Syrians. According to the chronicle
of the Monophysite monk known as Pseudo-Dionysius, al Malik “issued a strict
edict for every individual to go to his country of origin, his village, where he was
to register his name, that of his father, his vines, his olive trees, his property, his
children and everything he owned. This was the origin of the poll tax; this was
the origin of all the evils spread out over the Christians.”
692 A council of 327 (211?) bishops was held in the trullo or domed room of the
Emperor’s palace in Constantinople. Called by the emperor Justinian II (685-95,
705-11), it is referred to as the Quinisext council or the Council in Trullo, and
viewed (in the East) as an extension of the 5th and 6th ecumenical councils. No
canons had been formulated for the entire Church since Chalcedon (451), so the
Quinisext council set about to contemporary practices. The 102 canons acted to
(a) fix bishops, priests, and monks to their respective locations of service; (b)
support eastern Roman, rather than Armenian, Jewish, or Latin customs; and (c)
to suppress paganism and superstition.
Canon 1 anathematized to “Origen, and Didymus, and Evagrios, all of whom
reintroduced feigned Greek myths.”
One canon (13) condemned mandatory clerical celibacy.
Canon 73 commended due veneration (proskunhsin) to the figure of the cross,
and that it not be formed on the floor where it would be trampled.
Canon 82 ordered that the image of Christ in icons be a human figure, not a
lamb as in earlier times, “that we may recall to our memory his conversation in
the flesh, his passion and salutary death, and his redemption which was wrought
for the world.”
Canon 90 forbade kneeling from Vespers on Saturday until Sunday evening.
Canon 91 equates abortion to murder.
Canon 95 makes a distinction between former heretics who can be received into
the Church by chrismation and those who must be baptized.
The bishops of Rome were hesitant to approve of the canons promulgated by the
Quinisext council. Bishop Sergius I of Rome (687-710) refused to sign them
when they were delived by the legates who had attended the council. In
contrast to the events surrounding Martin I (653 above), when Justinian II
ordered the imperial official Zacharias to arrest Sergius, the armies of Ravenna
and Pentapolis marched to Rome to protect its bishop. Later, Justinian requested
that John VII (705-7) approve the canons, and it appears that he may have.
Hadrian I (772-95) approved the canons in a letter to Tenasius of
Constantinople.
692 Wilfrid, bishop of York, fell out with King Aldfrith, and was exiled again.
CHURCH HISTORY - 122
694 King Egica of Spain ordered the enslavement of all Jews and the confiscation
of their property.
695 Willibrord appointed archbishop of Utrecht (north of the Rhine near the
North Sea). He oversaw the construction of churches and monasteries among
the Frisians. From the monastery at Echternach, Willibrord sent missionaries
eastward, to Hesse, Thuringia, and Franconia.
698 Carthage fell to the Saracens.
698 The synod of Pavia restored communion between Istria and Rome, broken
during the Fifth Ecumencial Council (see 548 above).
700 In Rome from around this year, a large fragment of the True Cross was
venerated in the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.
The Eighth Century
701+ The Roman liturgy was imposed on the Western church through this
century. The process was nearly complete by the death of Charlemagne.
703 Wilfrid, bishop of York, again traveled to Rome seeking support for his cause
(see 678 above). The bishop of Rome again ruled in his favor.
705 The Roman emperor Justinian II rewarded the Bulgar Khagan Tervel with the
title of Caesar for his assistance in regaining the imperial throne.
705 John VII (705-7) of Rome apparently approved the canons of the Quinisext
council (see 692 above).
705 Wilfrid, bishop of York, was received by King Aldfrith’s successor Osred. He
was not - the bishop of Rome’s decision to the contrary notwithstanding returned to his see. Wilfrid died in a monastery in Mercia in 709.
705 The Coptic Pope Alexander II (705-730) was arrested when he complained
to the Omayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik about the financial persecution orchestrated
by Egypt’s governor. The caliph set a ransom of 3000 dinars for Alexander’s
release. In this period, the Muslim governor of Egypt routinely ransacked
churches and monasteries, and enslaved monks. Those Copts who attempted to
escape taxation were flogged and branded when captured, their arms or legs
were cut off, and property seized.
707 The Saracens conquered North Africa.
709 King Cenred of Mercia became a monk in Rome.
710 At the emperor Justinian II’s (685-695, 705-711) invitation, Constantine I
(707-15), bishop of Rome, traveled to Constantinople, where he approved a
version of the decrees of the Quinisext council (see 692 above). This was the
last papal visit to Constantinople until 1979.
711 Justinian II murdered. Constantine I,bishop of Rome, condemned the
usurper Phillipicus Bardanes (711-13) as a Monothelete.
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711 Spain fell to the Saracens. According to some, the victory of the Saracens in
Spain was also victory for the Roman underclass, being freed thereby from their
Gothic overlords.
712 The Bulgars under Tervel invaded Thrace, continuing to the walls of
Constantinople.
716 Abbot Coelfrith (Geoffrey) had a retinue of eighty when he left England for
Rome in this year.
Coelfrith, an associate of Saint Benedict Biscop, had
succeeded him as abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow in 690. The reputation for
learning at these monasteries, where Bede was educated (see 731 below),
continued to flourish during Coelfrith’s tenure. Unfortunately, Coelfrith was
unable to complete his pilgrimage to Rome. He died near the city of Langres
(Lingonas) in the diocese of Lyon. His relics were returned to Wearmouth.
717The Saracens besieged Constantinople. Leo III (717-741) became emperor.
In an act which can only be termed ironic given subsequent events, Leo had the
icon Hodogetria (She who shows the Way) carried in procession around the city
walls. Subsequently, Leo defeated the Saracen fleet. In 718, Leo again defeated
their fleet, even though it had been reinforced. A Bulgar army attacked the
Saracens, killing 22,000, and the latter retreated to Cilicia.
719 In May, Winfrith, a monk of Nursling, obtained a commission from Gregory
II, bishop of Rome from 715 to 731, to evangelize on the continent. He was
given a new name as well - Boniface - after an early Roman martyr. Boniface
labored among the Frisian and German tribes (see 722). Founded the abbey at
Fulda in 743/4, and was archbishop of Mainz from 744/5-54. Murdered in
754/5(?). He was said to have cut down the sacred oak at Geismar in what is
now Hesse, Germany. He used its wood to build a chapel.
At one point during his career in Germany, Boniface encountered an Irishman
named Clement who taught that all, “believers and unbelievers, those who praise
God and those who worship idols” had been freed from punishment by Christ’s
harrowing of Hell.
720 The caliph Yazid II (720-24) established the value of a Muslim’s life at
12,000 dinars and that of a non-Muslim at 6,000.
721 Saracens invaded Aquitane but were routed by Duke Eudo at Toulouse.
722 Gregory II commissioned Boniface to preach the gospel east of the Rhine.
Under the protection of Charles Martel (mayor of the palace from 714-41), he
concentrated his activities in Thuringia and Hesse.
723 The caliph Yazid II, who had been very ill, was cured by a Jewish
necromancer. At the necromancer's suggestion, Yazid ordered all Christian
pictures in churches, markets and private homes destroyed.
CHURCH HISTORY - 124
724 Permin, a native of Septimania, fleeing the Saracens, established the
Richenau monastery on an island in Lake Constance.
He later founded
monasteries at Murbach, Pfaffers, Niederaltaich and Hornbach. Pirmin donated
fifty books to the library at Richenau - which grew into one of the largest libraries
in Western Europe during this era.
724-43 Under the reign of the caliph Hisham, Christians in the Arab empire were
oppressed with exorbitant taxation and tributes.
724 Territorial dispute between Boniface and the bishop of Mainz, who wanted to
add the territories Boniface was evangelizing to his diocese.
725 The Saracens overran Septimania.
725 Excessive taxation of Christians led to an uprising of the Copts in lower
Egypt. Many Copts were massacred. Others fled by sea.
726 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Leo III (Leo the Isaurian (717-741))
ordered the icon of Christ in the Chalke - the a building which served as the
gateway to the Imperial palace - destroyed. The icon was painted above the
bronze doors at the entrance to the Chalke. When the demolition team arrived,
their leader was attacked and murdered by a crowd of outraged women. Also as
a result of the destruction of this icon, the exarchate of Ravenna rose in revolt
(727), backed by Gregory II, bishop of Rome (715-31).
727 The Lombard king Liutprand took the exarchate of Ravenna.
727 The Saracens were defeated at Nicea and driven beyond the Tarsus
mountains.
727 The Emperor Leo III appointed Kosmas I patriarch of Alexandria. The
Orthodox had been without a patriarch for the past ~70 years. By this time, the
Copts were a majority among Egyptian Christians. Working with Coptic Church
leaders, Kosmas led a revolution against the Arabs, which failed. Afterwards, the
Orthodox were left with only one church building in Alexandria. Christians were
persecuted. Many emigrated or converted to Islam.
729 The eunuch Eutychius retook Ravenna. Liutprand exercised little control
over the Lombard dukes, but Gregory II brought the southern duchies in Italy
into line, leaving the exarch isolated in Ravenna. Gregory II (715-31) was now
politically independent of Constantinople.
Note, however, that the tribute
payments begun in the time of Pelagius II (579-90) continued through the
papacy of Gregory III (731-41), until Zacharias (741-52) became bishop of
Rome.
730 Evantius, archdeacon of Toledo, wrote against the practice of some
Christians in Saragossa who avoided certain types of food out of fear they would
be unclean if they consumed them.
730 - 842: Iconoclasm
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730 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Leo III (Leo the Isaurian (717-741)), with
the consent of a council of bishops and senators, promulgated an edict requiring
the removal of all icons from churches.
The patriarch of Constantinople
(Germanus) joined the revolt in favor of icons, and the emperor deposed him in
730, appointing Anastatius patriarch. One motive for Leo’s actions may have
been to limit the power of the monasteries, which made much of their income
from the production of icons. Another may have been his perception that
military setbacks were due to God’s disfavor of idolatry.
After the edict, Leo ordered the destruction of icons within the monasteries.
Many monks fled to Greece and Italy - taking smaller icons with them, hidden in
their clothing - others fled to the caves of the Cappadocian desert.
Leo's edict had little effect outside of Constantinople. The patriarchs of Rome,
Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem openly declared themselves in favor of icons.
The prohibition of art applied to religious works only. For instance, scenes of the
Councils painted in the Milion (a public building in Constantinople) were replaced
by paintings of a horse race in the Hippodrome.
730 Gregory II (715-31), bishop of Rome, wrote a letter to Constantinople
denying that the emperor had the right to interfere in doctrinal matters (in
particular, the controversy over icons) and asserting that, if the emperor tried to
use force against the bishop of Rome, the entire western world would come to
his defense. Gregory anathematized the iconoclasts without naming the emperor
explicitly.
730St. John of Damascus, tax collector for a Muslim caliph, wrote his Discourses
on Sacred Images against the emperor Leo III and the Iconoclasts. Soon
thereafter, he became a monk at Mar Saba, near Jerusalem. He wrote his The
Source of Knowledge, including An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.
John gave the following list of Old Testament books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Kings (1 and 2 Samuel),
3 and 4 Kings (1 and 2 Kings), 1 and 2 Paraleipomena (1 and 2 Chronicles), Job,
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, the twelve minor prophets,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, two books of Esdras (Ezra and Nehemiah), and Esther.
The only book included in modern Hebrew Bibles not listed here is Lamentations
– but John may have it joined to Jeremiah. John specifically excluded the
Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), which he termed virtuous and
noble.
John’s New Testament was the modern volume plus Clement’s Canons of the
holy apostles (see the Exact Exposition, Book 4, Chapter 17).
731Bede completed his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. He was the
author responsible for the popularity of the A.D. system of dates. (See year
541.) Bede was a disciple of Coelfrith’s. At one point, due to a disease that
wasted the community at Jarrow, Bede and Coelfrith were the only two healthy
enough to pray.
CHURCH HISTORY - 126
In his The Reckoning of Time, Bede revised Eusebius’ chronology (see 327
above) according to the dates in the Hebrew (rather than the Greek) Old
Testament. By doing so he was able to postpone the day of judgment by several
centuries, since the Hebrew and Greek dates disagree, most severely in the ages
at birth of the antediluvian patriarchs. For instance, a literal reading of the
genealogy in Genesis chapter 5 puts the flood in 2243 anno mundi following the
LXX, but in 1657 according to the Hebrew. Largely (though not entirely) by
capitalizing on this difference, Bede was able to establish that Tiberius’ fifteenth
year (Luke 3.1) was 3981 years after Adam. Consequently, he placed Christ’s
birth in the year 3953 anno mundi.
732Battle of Tours. Franks turned back the Saracens. At the battle of Poitiers
(733), Charles Martel began the suppression of a Gallo-Roman revolution, which
was being supported by the Arabs. At the battle of Provence in 739, the
revolution was finally crushed.
732 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Leo III’s fleet, intended for an invasion of
Italy, was destroyed by a storm.
732 Gregory III (731-41), patriarch of Rome, refused, like his predecessors, to
agree with Leo III on the issue of images. Leo confiscated the papal estates in
Sicily and southern Italy, from which most of Gregory’s income was derived. Leo
also reorganized the church, removing the Greek-speaking provinces of Illyria,
Sicily and southern Italy -- the archbishoprics of Thessalonica, Corinth, Syracuse,
Reggio, Nicopolis, Athens and Patras -- from Gregory’s jurisdiction, placing them
under the patriarch of Constantinople. In effect, Leo threw the patriarch of Rome
out of the empire. (The papacy regained control over southern Italy after the
Norman conquest, around 1059.)
737 A Saracen force defeated a Khazar army near the Volga. But as the
Saracens were forced to retreat, the Khazars won a strategic victory, thought by
many to be as significant as the Battle of Tours (732). By holding the Caucasus
against Islamic aggression, the Khazars delayed their conquest of eastern Europe
and thwarted the Saracen’s desire to attack Constantinople from the north.
The Khazars were a Turkic people who first appeared near the end of the sixth
century, on the steppes north of the Caucasus. Their capital was at Itil’ in the
Volga estuary, and they ruled the steppes between the Volga and the Dneiper.
According to medieval Hebrew sources of uncertain reliability, the Khazar Bulan
accepted some Jewish beliefs between 730 and 740. Some modern historians
are of the opinion that the Khazar ruling class accepted Judaism between 850
and 900.
739 An Coptic uprising in Egypt bloodily suppressed by the Saracens.
739/40 Boniface reorganized the Bavarian episcopate. Bavaria later acted as a
base for the Frankish mission to the Slavs.
740 Leo III defeated the Saracens at Akroinon, effectively halting the Arab
invasion at the Tarsus mountains in the East, as Charles Martel had limited them
at the Pyrenees in the West at Poitiers in 733.
CHURCH HISTORY - 127
741 Constantine V (741-75) became Roman Emperor. Like his father, he was an
iconoclast. It is reported that, when he was baptized, he fouled the baptismal
waters. Thus, he is known as Constantine Copronymus (that is, Constantine
"dung-name").
In 742, his throne was usurped by his brother-in-law,
Artabasdus. In 743, however, he regained his throne. Patriarch Anastatius, who
had supported the usurper, was paraded naked around the arena, riding
backward on a donkey, but then restored to office.
743 In exchange for Bavarian assistance in defeating the Avars, Boruth, leader of
the Carantians, accepted Bavarian overlordship, and delivered his son Cacatius
and nephew Cheitmar as hostages, whom he asked to be raised as Christians.
The Carantians lived near the upper Drava river (southern Austria). Cheitmar
later became duke of the Carantians (~752) and invited priests and bishops from
Salzburg into the Carantania.
744 Boniface founded a monastery at Fulda (in modern Germany), which housed
about 360 monks by 779.
744-50 Reign of the caliph Marwan II. Of him, the Monophysite monk PseudoDionysius wrote, “Marwan’s main concern was to amass gold, and his yoke bore
heavily on the people of the country. His troops inflicted many evils on the men:
blows, pillage, outrages on women in their husbands’ presence.”
744 When the Egyptian governor offered them relief from the jizyah (poll tax),
24,000 Coptic Christians converted to Islam. From about this time, and certainly
by 832, the Copts were a minority in Egypt.
745 Boniface became bishop of Mainz.
745 The teachings of Clement (see 719 above) and those of a certain Aldeburt
were condemned at a synod in Rome. Aldeburt, a native of Gaul, claimed to
have received a letter from Jesus. He distributed his own hair and fingernails as
holy relics, and doubted the spiritual benefit of pilgrimage to Rome. Aldeburt
also set up rival churches or chapels, tempting the people away from the older
churches.
745-7 Bubonic plague in Asia Minor killed ~1/3 of the population.
The
Peloponnese was hit by plague, in 746-7. Afterwards, the Peloponnese was
inhabited almost entirely by Slavs.
746 Constantine V invaded Syria and captured Germania.
population in Thrace.
He resettled the
747 The Roman ecclesiastical calendar was adopted in England by a synod
meeting in Cloveshoe. In addition, observance of the feast days of Sts. Gregory
the Great and Augustine (of Canterbury) was ordered. The English church made
unilateral (without the permission of the bishop of Rome) changes to her
calendar until 1161, when Edward the Confessor was canonized. The same
synod prohibited monasteries from housing poets, harpists, musicians, and
jesters.
747 A Saracen fleet from Alexandria was destroyed at sea by a Roman using
Greek fire.
CHURCH HISTORY - 128
747 A Frankish synod prohibited clergy from carrying weapons or wearing
ostentatious clothing. A synod held in Germany under Boniface (perhaps the
same?) forbade clergy from hunting (see 517, 673), going about with dogs, and
keeping hawks.
747 A council in England adopted the Rogation Days (see Mamertus above,
~452).
749 The Lombard king Aistulf announced his intention to bring the Papacy to
vassalage. He conquered the exarchate of Ravenna. Some modern historians
believe that it is about this time that the Donation of Constantine was forged to
secure the papacy by giving ti legal title to the exarchate of Ravenna, in effect
allowing the bishop of Rome to take the exarch’s place.
749 The Omayyad Caliph Marwan II (744-750) brought an army to Egypt to
suppress a Coptic insurrection centered on al-Bashmur in the marshlands of the
Nile delta. He imprisoned the Coptic Pope Kha’il (744-767), and carried him to
Rashid (Rosetta) in chains. His army was defeated by the Copts, who then
destroyed Rashid. The Pope and other clergy were freed.
750 The Battle of the Greater Zab River. Caliph Marwan II's forces were crushed
by those of Abu al-Abbas al-Suffah, ending the Omayyad dynasty of Damascus.
The caliphate came under control of the Abbasids of Baghdad. Saracen military
pressure on the Roman Empire fell, as the Abbasids were interested in lands to
their east.
751 (754?) Pepin III (751-68), Mayor of the Palace in France, turned to Rome for
legal assistance in deposing the Merovingian king. The church argued that birth
alone did not qualify one for kingship, but competence was also required. St.
Boniface anointed Pepin with oil, and crowned him king of the Franks. At this
time, Zacharias (741-52) was bishop of Rome.
751 When the Saracens conquered Samarkand this year, they acquired the
secret to manufacturing paper. The Chinese had just sent a team to set up a
paper factory there. This Arab skill drifted into Europe. By 1280, there was a
water-powered paper mill in Fabriano in Italy. The manufacture of paper is key
to the development of inexpensive printing, and thus to the distribution of the
printed Bible during the Reformation.
752 Death of Zacharias, bishop of Rome from 741. After Zacharias, no other
pope of eastern origin would be elected until an interval of ~ 700 years had
elapsed.
753 Pope Stephen II (752-7) turned to Pepin the Frank for support against
Aistulf. Stephen had appealed to Constantinople, but was ignored.
754-75 Persecution of Christians by the caliph al-Mansur. He doubled the tribute
due from Christians. The tax was extorted by torture. Men fled the tax
collectors, moving continually from place to place. In addition to the excessive
taxes, the collectors demanded gifts for themselves. Even the very poor, widows
and orphans, were despoiled.
CHURCH HISTORY - 129
754 When Boniface (see 716) was slain in Frisia in this year, fifty-three members
of his household died with him.
754 (756?) Pepin defeated Aistulf and turned the lands of the old exarchate of
Ravenna over to Stephen. These became the States of the Church. The Franks,
in following years, referred to these states as the Roman Empire, and the true
Romans in the Empire ruled from Constantinople, they called Greeks.
The significance of this is that the bishop of Rome was transformed from a
subject of the Eastern Roman emperor into an independent secular sovereign,
not dependent on any other sovereign, with an independent territory and with
possession of supreme state authority on this territory.
The “Donation of Constantine,” which was to play a large role in the growth of
papal power in the Middle Ages, was forged in this era (see 749 above),
apparently to help convince Pepin to provide land to the church. The document
has Constantine writing, “And we ordain and decree that he [the Pope] shall
have the supremacy as well over the four chief seats: Antioch, Alexandria,
Constantinople, and Jerusalem, as also over all the churches of God in the whole
world. And he who for the time being shall be pontiff of that holy Roman church
shall be ... chief over all the priests of the world; and according to his judgment,
everything which is to be provided for the service of God or the stability of the
faith of the Christians is to be administered.” In another section, Constantine is
depicted as giving “over to the oft-mentioned most blessed pontiff ... the city of
Rome and all the provinces, districts and cities of Italy or of the western
regions.”
754 Constantine V called a synod, which met at the Palace of Hiera in
Constantinople and condemned the use of images in worship. The synod, under
the presidency of Bishop Theodosius of Ephesus, declared against icons on the
grounds that Christ's nature was perigraptos, uncircumscribed. They stated:
Whoever, then, makes an image of Christ, either depicts the Godhead which
cannot be depicted and mingles it with the manhood (like the Monophysites), or
he represents the body of Christ as not made divine and separate and as a
person apart, like the Nestorians.
The synod excommunicated the iconodule church leaders. No bishops from the
patriarchates of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch or Jerusalem were present.
After the synod, Constantine V increased the persecution of the monasteries.
Hundreds of monks and nuns were mutilated or put to death. The governor of
the Theme of Thracesion (located in the central Ionian coast), Michael
Lachanodrakon, assembled monks and nuns and commanded them to marry
immediately. He also had monks' beards soaked with flammable liquid and set
on fire. Michael burned monastery libraries and had consecrated vessels melted
down, sending the precious metal to Constantine.
Constantine referred to monks as 'the unmentionables' and accused them of all
manner of corruption. He had one of the leaders of the iconodule resistance,
Stephen, abbot of the monastery of St. Auxentius in Bithynia, stoned to death in
the street.
CHURCH HISTORY - 130
756 Constantine V destroyed an invading force of Bulgars. Engagements against
the Bulgars subsequently occurred frequently, and Constantine led nine
campaigns against them.
757 Constantine V placed Syrian and Armenian colonists in fortresses in Thrace
to strengthen the empire against Bulgar attack. It is thought that these colonists
first spread the Paulician heresy (see 872) into the Balkans.
763 In a day-long battle on June 30, Constantine V demolished the invading
forces of King Teletz of the Bulgars.
764 During a battle between the monasteries of Durrow and Clonmacnois
(Ireland), two hundred monks of Durrow were slain.
764 Bishop Felix of Cordoba criticized Christians who wished to observe Jewish
fasts.
767 Now that the bishop of Rome had become a temporal lord, controversy and
violence arose over his election. Riots broke out when a local lord (Toto, duke of
the bishopric of Nepi) had his brother raised from layman to bishop of Rome in
one day (July 5, 767). This unfortunate person (Constantine II) had his eyes
gouged out by the troops of the Lombard king, Desiderius. The Lombards killed
Toto. Another contender (Philip) was murdered. A third (Stephen III, 768-72)
succeeded to the bishopric by appealing to the Lombards for military support.
[Note: there seems to be some uncertainty about the fate of the pretenders.
Britannica says only that Constantine II disappeared from view, and that Philip
entered a monastery.]
767The Council of Gentily. The Emperor Constantine V "Copronymus" sent
ambassadors to Pepin, King of the Franks. The Franks accused the Easterners of
error in the veneration of images, while the Easterners protested the Franks’
addition of the filioque to the Nicene creed. [This is somewhat peculiar, since
Constantine V was a violent persecuter of the iconophiles.]
767 St. Stephen the Younger martyred as an iconophile.
767 Coptic rebels defeated a Muslim army sent to subdue them.
769 King Tassilo III of Bavaria established the monastery at Innichen “because of
the unbelief of the Slav peoples, to lead them into the way of truth.” (Innichen
was located near the headwaters of the Drava River, and so was suitable for
missions downstream, to the east, among the Carantians and Croats.)
772 Hadrian I (or Adrian I, 772-95) became bishop of Rome. In a letter to
Tenasius of Constantinople, he wrote, “All the holy six synods I receive with all
their canons, which rightly and divinely were promulgated by them, among which
is contained that in which reference is made to a Lamb being pointed to by the
Precursor as being found in certain of the venerable images.” This is a reference
to canon 82 of the Quinisext council, held in the year 692. Hadrian’s statement
implies that he considered the Quinisext council part of the sixth ecumenical
council.
CHURCH HISTORY - 131
774 The Lombard king Desiderius quarreled with Hadrian, bishop of Rome, over
ownership of cities from the former exarchate of Ravenna.
Charlemagne
conquered the Lombard kingdom and proclaimed himself king of the Franks and
Lombards. By making himself king of the Lombards, Charlemagne contravened
the Donation of Constantine. But the pope got his cities.
In the view of some, one of Charlemagne’s chief political aims was to prevent
revolution from the non-Frankish indigenous population, who still considered
themselves Romans and felt a loyalty to the Roman empire, still in existence and
ruled from Constantinople. To break this bond, he began a campaign to paint
the Romans as “Greeks” and heretics. Hence, his church’s condemnation of the
7th Ecumenical Council’s ruling on images (Frankfurt, 794) and its insistence on
the filioque (Aachen, 809).
775 Death of Constantine V (Copronymous), after a campaign against the
Bulgars.
777 King Tassilo III of Bavaria founded the Kremsmunster monastery (south of
Linz, Austria) with a view to the conversion of the Slavs.
780Irene became Byzantine empress (780-790). She decided to restore icons in
the Eastern churches. The veneration of icons was allowed within the empire
between 787 and 815 (813?), when a second period of iconoclasm began.
780 In the decade, the bishop of Rome stopped the old practice of dating
documents by the Byzantine emperor’s regnal year, using Charlemagne’s
instead. In the 790’s the official announcement of his election was sent to
Charlemagne, instead of to Constantinople, as had been customary.
784 Irene appointed Tarasius patriarch of Constantinople when his iconoclast
predecessor retired.
785 The synod of Cealchythe or Calcuith. Only instance where papal legates
were present at a synod in Anglo-Saxon England. The council was called by Offa,
king of Mercia, in an attempt to take revenge on Jaenbert, archbishop of
Canterbury (766-90). The archbishop had wished to become king of Kent when
that throne became vacant, and, knowing that Offa had his eyes on that throne
also, had appealed to Charlemagne for assistance. Offa, having added Kent to
his domains, called the council to establish a new archbishopric at Lichfield in
Mercia. As a result, the territory directly under the supervision of Canterbury
was greatly reduced. The archbishop of Lichfield received the pallium from the
bishop of Rome. In addition, the papal legates proposed a canon restricting the
diet and apparel of monks and nuns.
785 After numerous Frankish incursions, including one in 782 where
Charlemagne had 4500 prisoners massacred, King Widukind of the Saxons
submitted and accepted baptism. The bishop of Rome, Adrian I (772-795), on
hearing the news, held three days of litanies in thanksgiving. After the Saxon
capitulation, Charlemagne used Boniface’s monastery at Fulda and other
monastic houses as bases for missionary activity among the Saxons.
CHURCH HISTORY - 132
Forced conversion of the Saxons: Charlemagne backed up this missionary
activity with legal action. The Saxon Capitulary, or the capitulary of Paderborn,
set the punishment for refusal to accept baptism at death. The death penalty
also applied for the crimes of eating meat during Lent, attacking churches, killing
clergy, participating in pagan rituals, and conspiracy against the Frankish king.
The capitulary also required that Sundays and holy days be regarded as days of
rest, and church attendance on those days. Baptism of infants was to occur
within one year of birth. Tithes were required to support the church. Burials
were limited to church cemetaries. Cremations were forbidden, and marriages of
near kin were proscribed.
785 Irene and her son, the fifteen year old Constantine VI, invited Pope Hadrian
I (772-95) to send delegates to a council to overturn iconoclasm. Hadrian, in
turn, replied in writing, in his synodica, a document read and approved at the
council of 787, but later condemned by the Franks.
786 A council began to meet in Constantinople to re-instate the religious use of
icons, but it was forced to disband by a group of soldiers from the imperial
guard. The representatives from Rome departed by ship. The rebellious troops
were sent into Asia, and the council delegates were reassembled.
786 A synod in England forbade use of a drinking horn in the eucharist as a
chalice.
787The first Viking (Danish) raid on the English coast.
787Seventh Ecumenical Council, held at Nicaea in the Church of Holy Wisdom,
where the first council of Nicea had met. It was under the leadership of papal
legates, who had made it to Sicily when they were recalled, but Patriarch
Tarasios (Tarasius) served as acting chairman. The council condemned the
iconoclasts. It stated:
“We, therefore ... define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of
the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well
in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy
churches of God ... to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, of
our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honorable Angels, of the saints and
of all pious people.”
These figures were to be honored, though not worshipped. The Septuagint and
the New Testament both use the word proskunhseiV for honor shown, both to
created things and to God, but they reserve the word latreuseiV (worship) for
God alone. The council encouraged proskunhseiV of images:
“...and to these should be given due salutation and honorable reverence
(proskunhsin), not indeed that true worship (latreian) of faith which pertains
alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and lifegiving Cross and the Book of the Gospels and to other holy objects, incense and
lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom. For the honor which is
paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents ...”
787 England began to pay Peter’s pence, an offering of alms to Rome.
CHURCH HISTORY - 133
788 Charlemagne annexed Bavaria after deposing Tassilo III, last king of the
Agilolfing family.
789 Charlemagne issued an edict, drafted by Alcuin (735-804), an Englishman,
chosen mentor of Frankish educational and ecclesiastical reform, which
commanded: “In each bishopric and in each monastery let the psalms, the
notes, the chant, calculation and grammar be taught and carefully corrected
books be available.” Charlemagne took these steps to mitigate the decline in
Christian learning. In addition, monasteries were adopting diverse rules for
forming letters, leading toward a Balkanization of knowledge. Charlemagne
appointed Alcuin head of a school of calligraphy in Tours to standardize letter
formation. The modern Roman lower case letters are a result of Alcuin's efforts.
790 By about this time, Charlemagne and his theologians had received a Latin
translation of the acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. A document opposing
these acts was drafted, the Capitulare adversus synodum. The Capitulare was
critical of Irene’s role in calling the council, since she was a woman; of Tarasios’
sudden rise from layman to patriarch; of the council’s use of past conciliar
decrees that they considered irrelevant; and of the decision made in favor of the
veneration of images, since nowhere in the Bible is the veneration commanded;
and of the portions of Hadrian’s synodica of 785 read to the council in 787. The
text of the Capitulare has been lost but has been surmised from Hadrian’s
response.
~792 The Libri Carolini was sent to the bishop of Rome by the Franks. The Libri
was a more elaborate consideration of the issues regarding the Seventh
Ecumenical Council, motivated by Hadrian’s refutation of the Capitulare (see
790). It accused the “Greeks” of authorizing the worship or “superstitious
adoration” of icons. In the view of the Libri, the proper use of images was
limited to the instruction of the illiterate. The council of 787 was also criticized
for failing to give sufficient respect to the bishop of Rome. Somewhat ironically,
Pope Hadrian was criticized for relying upon the Acts of St. Sylvester for evidence
in favor of icon veneration. Constantinople was characterized as a den of heresy.
792 A Frankish synod meeting in Regensberg condemned the teaching of Felix,
bishop of Urgel, a town in the Spanish border region under Charlemagne’s
overlordship. Felix was a proponent of adoptionism, the doctrine that Christ was
a member of the Trinity only by virtue of his adoption by God. The doctrine had
some strength in Spain, being supported by Archbishop Elipand of Toledo. Alcuin
and Paulinus (a former teacher of grammar, ecclesiastical advisor to
Charlemagne,and at some point archbishop of Aquileia) wrote monographs
against adoptionism, which were approved by synods in Frankfurt (794) and
Aquileia (796).
793 Viking raiders sacked Lindisfarne.
793 Muslim raiders from Spain burned down suburbs of Narbonne in France.
CHURCH HISTORY - 134
794The Synod of Frankfort, called by Charlemagne, opposed the conclusions of
Nicea II, 787, and denied that it had been an ecumenical council. Support for
Nicea’s rulings from Hadrian (772-95), bishop of Rome, was also condemned.
The worship of images, under the terms worship, adoration, and service of any
kind, was forbidden. Destruction of images was also opposed, inasmuch as the
synod did not condemn depictions as decorations or tools for instructing the
illiterate, only the worship or adoration of depictions. The Franks also criticized
Nicea II because, they thought, the question of the veneration of icons was too
trifling to merit consideration by an ecumenical council - a clear indication of
theological naivete on the part of the Franks. (The English church agreed with
the Gallican, against the pope.)
Patriarch Tarasios’ formula indicating the Holy Spirit proceeds “from the Father
through the Son” was condemned as an error. In the Frankish view, it implied
that the Holy Spirit was created, not properly a member of the Trinity. Paulinus
of Aquileia’s libellus, which defended the procession of the Spirit from the Father
and the Son, was also read at Frankfort.
Adoptionism was also condemned, as works by both Alcuin and Paulinus against
that heresy were read and approved. Alcuin, who was present at the synod of
Frankfort, considered that Charlemagne, by directing the synod, had effectively
served as “rector of the Christian people” in his empire.
795 Theodore, abbot of a monastery near Mount Olympus in Bithnia and later
known as Theodore Studites or Theodore of Stoudion, criticized Constantine VI
(780-97) for his second marriage, this to his mistress Theodote. Theodore was
exiled to Thessalonica.
796 Frankish victory over the Avars resulted in the annexation of Pannonia
(western Hungary). One of Charlemagne’s sons met with Arn of Salzburg and
Paulinus, archbishop of Aquileia, and determined not to force baptism on the
Avars (see 785 above for the Frankish treatment of the Saxons).
796 The synod of Aquileia. Paulinus argued that the filioque was simply a
clarification of the original Nicene creed, as the creed of 381 had been. He
encouraged the public recitation of the creed, with filioque, as a tool against
heretical beliefs such as adoptionism (see 793 above) and Arianism.
797 Irene had the eyes of her son, the Emperor Constantine VI, put out. He died
from his injuries. From this point until she was deposed in 802, Irene was
empress.
Irene recalled Theodore Studites (see 795) from exile, and he and his followers
moved to the monastery of Stoudion in Constantinople.
798 Bavaria obtained an archbishop, whose see was at Salzburg. The first
incumbent, Arn, labored for the conversion of the Avars (see 796) and the
Carantians. Arn is also partially responsible for an excellent library at Salzburg.
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800 In the West around this time the bishop of Rome began to be termed “Pope”
exclusively. The word means Father, and was used when referring to bishops
(and even priests) from the earliest times. Pope Leo III (795-816) crowned
Charlemagne Roman emperor. By crowning the emperor, the bishop of Rome
was asserting his claim to the West, as presented in the Donation of Constantine:
if he gave the imperial title, he could also remove it.
The filioque was embraced by Charlemagne, who went so far as to accuse the
East of deliberately omitting it from the ancient Nicene Creed.
800 Sometime during the eighth century, azymes (unleavened bread) was
introduced into the eucharist in the West.
800 The town of Mikulcice in Moravia (between the Morava and Danube rivers)
was established by this time.
800 Felix of Urgel renounced adoptionism.
800+ Christian writings, previously available in Latin, began to be widely
disseminated in Irish.
The Ninth Century
802 The Empress Irene was deposed by a group of state officials, arrested, and
exiled to an island in the Marmara, then to Lesbos, where she died in 803.
801 An embassy Charlemagne had sent to Baghdad returned (only one of the
three envoys survived the trip), bringing an elephant with them. The Caliph
Harun al Rashid had given Charlemagne permission to establish a Carolingian
monastery in Jerusalem. The eastern monks were shocked by the Frankish
alteration to the creed. The western monks appealed to Leo III, bishop of Rome
from 795-816, to settle the controversy. See 809 & 810 below.
803 The archbishopric of Lichfield (see 785 above) was terminated by the synod
of Cloveshoe. “We give this charge, and sign it with the sign of the cross, that
the archepiscopal from this time forward never be in the monastery of Lichfield,
nor in any other place but the city of Canterbury, where Christ's Church is, and
where the Catholic faith first shone forth in this island, and where holy baptism
was first celebrated by St. Augustine ... But if any dare to rend Christ's garment
and to divide the untiy of the holy Church of God, contrary to the apostolic
precepts and all ours, let him know that he is eternally damned, unless he make
due satisfaction for what he has wickedly done, contrary to the canons.”
804 Alcuin wrote to the people of Lyons cautioning them not to insert the filioque
into the creed. The Spanish bishop Felix d’Urgel had been banished there and
was advocating including the filioque. [Note: this event is problematic. By 804,
Felix had renounced adoptionism, and Alcuin is known to have advocated the use
of the filioque in public worship.]
805 A synod of Aachen in this year instructed bishops to develop schools of
church music, based on the Roman model (see 595 above).
805 Charlemagne proscribed the weapons trade with the Slavs.
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806 The Monastery of St. Columba on Iona destroyed by Viking raiders. All the
monks were killed.
806 Theodore Studites opposed the emperor Nicephorus I (802-11) over the
appointment of another Nichephorus as patriarch of Constantinople. Theodore
opposed this appointment because the future patriarch was soft on adulterous
remarriages (see 795), took conciliatory positions on theological matters, and
was nominated to the patriarchate while still a layman. Because of Nichephorus’
opposition to iconoclasm, he later gained Theodore’ approval.
809 Theodore Studites exiled for the second time (809-811) after his
condemnation by a synod.
809 At the Council of Aachen (or Aix-La-Chapelle), Charlemagne decreed that
belief in the filioque was necessary for salvation. He also commissioned Theodulf
of Orleans to collect patristic passages supporting the addition to the creed.
810 The council of Aix-la-Chapelle referred the question of the filioque to the
Pope. According to the minutes of the conversation held in 810 between the
three apocrisari of Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, kept by the Frankish monk
Smaragdus, Leo accepted the teaching of the Fathers, quoted by the Franks,
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, as taught by
Augustine and Ambrose. However, he declared that the filioque must not be
added to the Creed, as the Franks had done. Leo gave the Franks permission to
sing the Creed, but not to add to the Creed. Leo emphasized that he could not
put himself in a position higher than the Fathers of the Synods, who did not omit
the filioque out of oversight or ignorance, but by divine inspiration.
Leo had the creed engraved, without filioque, on two tablets of silver and hung
them in St. Peter’s Church above the inscription, “I, Leo, have put up these
tablets for the love and preservation of the orthodox faith.”
811 The Bulgar Khan Krum killed the Roman emperor Nicephorus I (802-11) in
battle in a narrow gorge in the Balkans. Krum had Nicephorus’ skull fashioned
into a goblet.
811 Charlemagne acted as judge in a dispute between the churches of Salzburg
and Aquileia over missionary activity in the Carantanian region.
813 The Bulgars sacked Adrianople and burned the suburbs of Constantinople.
Their Khagan Krum died the following year.
814 Charlemagne died at Aachen.
815 (813?) With the ascension of the Emperor Leo the Armenian (Leo V, 813-20)
to the throne, icons were again banned within the Roman Empire.
815 Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople was exiled to a monastic retreat near
Chalcedon. While there, he wrote influential treatises against iconoclasm.
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815 A Bulgar boyar emigrated to Constantinople and took the Christian name of
Theodore. He was given the rank of patrician. Conversions like this appear to
have been not uncommon in this era, as attested by a letter to the boyar from
Theodore Studites.
816 Theodore Studites again exiled (816-20), this time for his opposition to
iconoclasm.
816+ The archbishop of Lyons, Agobard (816-40), wrote pamphlets against
Jewish proselytizers active in southern Gaul among both peasants and town
dwellers, and against Jewish influence in the French court. When Agobard sent
missions to the Jews in Lyons, they complained to King Louis the Pious (814-40),
who sided with his Jewish subjects.
817 The deposed patriarch of Constantinople, Nicephorus, wrote Apologeticus
major, a defense of the veneration of icons. His persuasiveness may have been
a factor in Michael II’s relative toleration of the iconodules. Nicephorus is well
known for his Breviarium Nicephori, a history of the Roman Empire from 602769, and for his chronological tables, listing the major ecclesial and political
leaders from Adam to 829. Much of Nicephorus’ work was translated into Latin
by Anastasius the Librarian (seee 867-8 below).
820 The emperor Michael II, an iconoclast, allowed Theodore Studites to return
to Constantinople, but was prevented from resuming his role as abbot.
822 Mojmir (prince of Moravia) baptized by bishop Reginhere of Passau, a Frank.
823 A delegation including Archbishop Ebo of Rheims and Willeric, bishop of
Bremen, traveled to Denmark to convince its king, Harald Flak, to accept
Christianity.
825 The monk Blathmac of Iona murdered by Vikings for refusing to say where
the monastery’s treasure was hidden. The story of his death spread rapidly, at
least as far as Reichenau.
826 King Harald Flak of Denmark baptized a Christian at the German imperial
court in Ingelheim (near Mainz).
827 The Aghlabid Amirs of Northern Africa invaded Sicily.
827/8 Muslims from Spain attacked Crete. They enslaved the populace of
twenty-nine cities. Christian worship was permitted at only one site on the
island. Afterwards, the Muslims raided the island of Aegina in the gulf of Corinth.
All the inhabitants were killed or deported.
827 The emperor Michael the Stammerer (Michael II, 820-29) sent King Louis
the Pious of France (814-840) a copy of the works of the Pseudo-Dionysius.
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830+ Refounding of the University of Constantinople by the emperor Theophilus
I (829-42). Its output of scholars fueled the empire’s prosperity through the
next several centuries, as well as influencing the conversion of the Slavs (for
example, see 862 below).
The eastern renaissance was also assisted by
government reform, the implementation of new administrative regions known as
themes.
Extant documentations shows themes established in Peloponnese
(800), Macedonia (802), Cephalonia and the Ionian Islands (809), Dyrrachium
(825) and Thessalonica (836). (A theme was a districts settled with soldiers who
undertook a hereditary obligation of military service. Themes were governed by
strategoi, who enjoyed both military and civilian command.)
831 Baptism of a large number of Moravians by bishop Reginhere of Passau.
832 Anskar, educated at the monastery at Corbie, who had gone to Denmark in
826 and recently become bishop of Hamburg, traveled to Rome where he was
given a sweeping commission to evangelize the North by Gregory IV (bishop of
Rome, 827-844).
832 Devastated by excessive taxation and torture, the Copts of lower Egypt
rebelled once again against their Saracen overlords (see 725 and 739). Their
villages, vines, gardens, and churches were burned down. Many were killed or
deported.
833 Mojmir (prince of Moravia) annexed the territory of Pribina, prince of the
Slav territory Nitra. Moravian power had grown since Charlemagne’s defeat of
the Avars in 795. Afterwards, Pribina visited King Louis the German (840-76),
under whose protection Pribina built a fortress and church at Zalavar at the
western end of Lake Balaton in Pannonia (now Hungary). Archbishop Liupram of
Salzburg consecrated the church there and sixteen other churches in Pannonia.
835 The Frankish king Louis the Pious, at the urging of Gregory IV (828-44),
bishop of Rome, began to observe All Saints’ Day on November 1. That date had
been celebrated as All Saints’ Day in England since late in the eighth century.
838 A certain Bodo from Alemannia, a deacon in the service of the Frankish King
Louis the Pious, secretly converted to Judaism under the influence of prominent
Jews at Louis’ court. Pretending to go on pilgrimage to Rome, Bodo traveled to
Spain where he changed his name to Eleazar, married a Jewish girl, and forced
his nephew to convert to Judaism as well. Eleazar entered into correspondence
with Paul Avlar of Cordoba, the son of Jewish converts to Christianity, on the
question of the relative merits of the two faiths. Eleazar predicted the future
victory of the Jews and the appearance of the Messiah in 867. He accused
Christians of tritheism and of worshipping a man.
A few years after removing to Spain, Eleazar attempted to convince the Amir
Abd-ar-Rahman II, ruler of Spain, to coerce Christians into abandoning their
faith.
~840 The monastery at Samos (northwestern Spain), originally founded by
bishop Ermefredus of Lugo in about 660, re-established by an immigrant from
the Islamic south of Spain about this year. More monks fled there from Cordoba
in 857.
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840 A certain lady named Dhouda, living in southern France, wrote a work on
Christian devotion for her son.
840+ Miracle stories collected at Fulda by a monk named Rudolf refer to the
sacrament of confession.
840+ Amolus, successor to Agobard as archbishop of Lyons, wrote a work
entitled Liber contra Judeos, dedicated to the emperor of the western Franks,
Charles the Bald. Amolus stated that some Christians in Lyons were visiting
synagogues because rabbis were better preachers than Christian priests. He
complained of the Toledoth Yeshu, an anti-Christian work that ridiculed the
gospels. Amolus mentioned the practice of Jewish taxgatherers who offered to
forgive taxes to peasants who agreed to convert to Judaism.
842 The Empress Theodora, after her husband’s death and in the name of her
five-year old son, the Emperor Michael III, recalled the Orthodox bishops and
priests who had been expelled from their positions by her iconoclastic husband,
the Emperor Theophilus. A synod was convened to re-affirm the Orthodox faith
against the iconoclasts.
843 On the first Sunday of Great Lent, March 11, the Synodicon of Orthodoxy
was first proclaimed. In its current form, the Synodicon varies somewhat from
location to location. It anathematizes:
(1) all attacks upon the Patriarchs Germanus, Tarasius, Nicephorus, Methodius,
Ignatius, Photius, Stephen, Anthony, and Nicholas;
(2) everything, whether past or future, contrary to Church tradition and teaching
and the institutions of the Fathers;
(3) those who employ the term uncircumscribed to argue against the depiction of
Christ in icons;
(4) those who realize that images (presumably, images of the pre-Incarnate
Logos) were revealed to the Old Testament prophets (and those who do not), but
still insist that icons of the incarnate Word are not to be made;
(5) those who accept Christ's saving works but refuse to view those acts depicted
in icons, or to venerate them;
(6) those who immitate the blasphemies of Jews and Greeks against Christ by
insulting his icons;
(7) Anastatius, Constantine, and Nicetas;
(8) Theodotus, Anthony, and John - these last six mentioned were iconoclasttic
patriarchs of Constantinople;
(9) Paul, Theodore Gastes, Stephen Molytes, Theodore Crithinus (Archbishop of
Syracuse), Leo Laloudis and those like them (this anathema apparently applies to
the then-living iconoclasts);
The following anathemas were added later. Anathemas 11 through 21 condemn
John Italus (condemned in 1082) and his pagan Greek philosophy.
(10) Gerontius (11th century), who apparently called himself “Christ”;
(11) those who seek to discover exactly how the Word was joined to his human
substance, and how the latter was deified;
(12) those who introduce Greek doctrines of the soul, heaven, earth, and
creation into the Church;
(13) those who teach metemphychosis or the destruction of the soul after death;
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(14) those who say that ideas or matter are co-eternal with God, and those who
say that creation is eternal or immutable;
(15) those who honor, or who believe that God will honor, Greek philosophers or
heresiarchs who taught error above the Fathers of the councils who held to the
truth, though these latter may have sinned through passion or ignorance;
(16) those who do not accept the miracles of Christ, the Theotokos, and all his
saints;
(17) those who think Greek philosophy to be true and try to convert the faithful
to their opinions;
(18) those who teach that creation is the necessary result of the participation of
matter in the ideas, and not the result of God's free will;
(19) those who say that it is impossible that we will rise to judgment in these
same bodies;
(20) those who believe in the pre-existence of souls; those who deny that all of
creation is ex nihilo; those who say that hell is temporary or that all of creation
will be restored (including the most wicked); and those who understand the
Kingdom of Heaven to be temporary.
(21) all of John Italus doctrines introduced in opposition to the Orthodox faith;
Nilus seens to have been influenced by Italus.
(22) Nilus' doctrines, and those who agree with them;
The next four anathemas address the errors of the Bogomils, a Manichean-like
sect of the tenth through thirteenth centuries. The Bogomils had a low view of
creation, and of the God of creation. They held that man's redemption consisted
in being freed by death of his body which imprisoned him in this life.
(23) those who say the Son was created accidentally, and is merely an angel;
and those who say that the Holy Spirit is inferior to the Son and the Father;
(23) those who say that Satan is the creator and ruler of the universe and the
creator of mankind;
(24) those who deny that the Logos and Son was begotten before time, and
became incarnate of the Virgin Mary for our salvation; and those who believe the
eucharist to be only bread and wine and not truly the flesh and blood of the
Savior;
(25) those who do not worship the cross;
The next two anathemas are directed against a Eustratius, who held to the
beliefs of Italus, and a certain Leo. From the following, they seem to have
confused the natures with persons.
(26) those who say that Christ’s human nature will always be in servitude to his
Divine nature;
(27) those who improperly use the distinction between the two natures of Christ
and say that the human nature is lower in dignity and obligated to worship the
Divine nature; and those say our High Priest is that human nature, and not the
one person of Christ;
The following eight anathemas are directed against the errors of Basilakes and
Soterichus, condemned by the Synod of Blachernae in 1157.
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(28) those who say that Christ offered his sacrifice to God the Father alone, and
not to himself and to the Holy Spirit;
(30) those who deny that the daily sacrifice of the priests of the Church is to the
Holy Trinity;
(31) those who say that the sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy is only figuratively the
sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; those who deny that the sacrifice in the
Lirtugy is one and the same as that of Christ on the cross;
(33) those who deny that Christ reconciled us to Himself though the entire
mystery of the economy, and so reconciled us to all of the Holy Trinity, but say
instead that we were reconciled to the Son through the incarnation and to the
Father through the passion;
(34) those who misunderstand and twist the teachings of the Church;
(35) those who think the deification of Christ's humanity destroyed his human
nature; and those who deny that his deified human nature is worthy of worship;
and those who say that, since the human nature of Christ was swallowed up into
Divinity, his passion was an illusion;
(36) those who reject the doctrines of Athanasius, Cyril, Ambrose, Amphilochius,
and Leo of Old Rome, and who do not accept the teachings of the Ecumenical
councils, in particular, the fourth and sixth councils;
(37) those who say that characteristics of Christ’s human nature - such as
creaturehood, circumscription, mortality, and blameless passions - exist only
hypothetically, when one considers Christ's human nature in abstraction, and not
really and truly;
The following anathemas are directed against Constantine the Bulgarian,
formerly Metropolitan of Corfu, and John Irenicus, whose views were condemned
by a synod in 1166.
(38) Constantine the Bulgarian, who says that “My father is greater than I” refers
only to Christ's human nature, taken in abstraction; whereas the Fathers use
such an abstraction only to explain statements implying servitude or ignorance,
and explain the statement “My father is greater than I” in various ways, one of
which is that the statement refers to the fact that Christ’s human nature retained
its properties in the hypostatic union;
(39) those who agree with Constantine of Bulgaria;
(40) John Irenicus, who held the same view;
Various anathemas:
(41) the iconoclastic synod;
(42) those who apply Scripture condemning idolatry to the venerable icons;
(43) those who have communion with the enemies of icons;
(44) those who say icons are our “gods”;
(45) those who say that someone other than Christ (e.g., the Emperor
Constantine Copronymus) rescued us from idolatry;
(46) those who claim that the Church has fallen from the faith by accepting
idolatry;
(47) those who defend heretics and their followers, ancient or modern;
(48) those who do not venerate the icons of our Lord Jesus Christ, which depict
his humanity;
(49) all heretics;
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Anathemas against Barlaam and Acindynus. Barlaam was condemned by the
Council of St. Sophia in 1341, and Acindynus by the Council of Blachernae in
1351:
(50) Barlaam and Acindynus and their followers;
(51) those who think that the light of Christ's Transfiguration was an apparition;
and those who say it was the essence of God; anyone who does not confess that
the divine light is the uncreated grace and energy of God which always proceeds
from God's essence;
(52) those who refuse to recognize the undivided distinction between God's
essence and his energy;
(53) those who deny that the energy of God is uncreated;
(54) those who say that the distinction between energy and essence implies that
God is not simple and uncompounded;
(55) those claim that the term “Godhead” is rightly applied only to the essence of
God, and not to the divine energy;
(56) those who say that the divine essence is communicated;
(57) all the sacrilegious writings of those men;
The following anathema is directed against Isaac Argyrus, a disciple of
Nicephorus Gregoras. Apparently, he held many of the views condemned in
anathemas 50-57. Argyrus was condemned by the council of 1351.
(58) Isaac Argyrus;
Various anathemas against ancient heresies and heretics:
(59) Arius;
(60) Peter the Fuller, who said the Trinity was crucified for us;
(61) Noetus - who said that the Trinity suffered - and Valentinus (the Gnostic);
(62) Paul of Samosata, Theodotion, and Nestorius;
(63) Peter the Paltry (Lycopetrus), Eutyches, and Sabellius;
(64) James Stanstalus, Dioscorus, Severus, three Monothelite patriarchs of
Constantinople (Sergius, Paul and Pyrrhus), and Sergius (a disciple of
Lycopetrus);
(65) the followers of Eutyches, the Monothelites, the Jacobites, the Artziburites,
and all heretics;
Although this list of anathemas is quite lengthy, the Synodicon is full or praise for
Orthodox doctine and its adherents. Historically, the Synodicon was read on the
first Sunday of Lent for the instruction of the faithful.
In 843, religious events and persons were again depicted on coins of the Roman
Empire. The iconoclasts had allowed secular images only to appear on coins.
845St. Blaith, while attempting to re-establish the monastery on Iona, killed by
Vikings.
845 Hamburg sacked by Danish pirates.
845 Bohemian lords presented themselves to King Louis the German (840-76)
and asked to become Christian. Louis had them baptized.
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846 Arabs sacked the suburbs of Rome, including the Vatican.
847-61 The reign of the caliph al-Muttawakkil was marked by persecution of nonMuslims, forced conversions, and the destruction of churches and synagogues
throughout the Abbasid Empire (centered in Baghdad).
848 The Synod of Mainz condemned Gottschalk of Orbais (803-868) for heresy.
Gottschalk’s theology emphasized the Augustinian doctrine of predestination.
Gottschalk was placed under the jurisdiction of archbishop Hincmar of Reims
(806-882), who imprisoned him at Hautvillers abbey.
In a response to Gottschalk’s emphasis on predestination, Hincmar wrote “On
God’s Predestination and Free Will” in which he denied predestination to hell.
Hincmar and Gottschalk were also involved in a theological dispute over certain
ways of referring to the Trinity which could imply polytheism.
Hincmar is the first person known to have doubted the authenticity of the
Forged Decretals.
~850 An anonymous Christian monk in Palestine wrote the Summa Theologiae
Arabica, an apologetic work, written in Arabic, that castigated Christians who, in
the interests of personal comfort and profit, downplayed the differences between
Christianity and Islam to make the faith more palatable to the Muslims. He
wrote, “By ‘There is no god but God’ they mean a god other than the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.”
850+
When Christians who had converted to Islam in Cordoba reversed
themselves, they were put to death. Islam grew in strength in Spain until
roughly 1050.
851 In November, a young woman named Flora was put to death in Spain for
apostasy. The child of a Muslim father and Christian mother, Flora was raised a
Christian after her father’s death. When she entered a nunnery, her Muslim
brother found her and denounced her to the authorities.
851-58 In the time of the Coptic pope Cosmas II (851-858), the persecution of
Christians was broadened to include the destruction of crosses and bells and the
demolition or desecration of churches. Copts were forbidden to ride horses and
required to dress in black. Copts were also dismissed from government service,
but many were returned when the government found itself unable to maintain
solvency without their assistance. During this period, many Copts converted to
Islam.
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852 Death of Aurelius and Sabigotho. The orphaned child of a Muslim father and
a Christian mother, Aurelius was raised a Christian by his paternal aunt. When
he was educated by Muslim relatives, he kept his faith a secret. He married a
secretly Christian woman named Sabigotho, whose stepfather, a secret Christian,
had converted the family. Aurelius and Sabigotho began to do works of mercy.
When they visited a prison, they met Flora (see 881 above) who warned them
that their end would be near when they met a foreign monk. Aurelius and
Sabigotho sold their property and entered the monastery of Tabanos. There they
met George, a Palestinian monk from the monastery of St. Saba. When they,
with Aurelius’ relative Felix and his wife Liliosa, publicly denounced Islam, they
and the monk George were executed.
852 The walls of Rome were extended to encircle Vatican hill.
853 In something of a correction to Augustine, the Council of Quiercy stated that
“God Almighty created him [man] righteous, without sin, and endowed with free
will.”
It also held that “God, the good and just, elected, on the basis of
foreknowledge, those from the mass of perdition whom he by grace predestined
to life.”
856 Death of Rabanus Maurus, Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop of Mainz. Maurus
is generally thought to have authored the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus.
856-62 Viking raids across northern France.
858 The Scottish king Kenneth mac Alpin buried at Iona.
custom of Scottish kings for the next ~250 years.
This would be the
858 The patriarch Photios (Photius) of Constantinople began the redecoration of
the churches. Photios had gone from layman to patriarch in a day (852), and this
offended Pope Nicholas I (858-67). Photios’ promotion was motivated by the
desire to replace Ignatios (Ignatius), then patriarch, who opposed the emperor’s
removal of his mother to a convent. The emperor Michael III held a council
(861) that confirmed Photios’ appointment, and the Papal legates agreed to the
decision. Nicholas, however, disagreed, held a rival council in Rome in 862, and
excommunicated Photios.
Nicholas was the first bishop of Rome to make use of the forged decretals.
These are a collection of ecclesiastical juridical acts compiled in the West at the
beginning of the ninth century in the name of Isidore, an authoritative Spanish
sacred minister. Since both the name of the compiler and the contents of the
collection, as was established later on, were spurious, it has received the name
of the “Pseudo­Isidorian Decretals.” The collection consists of three parts. In
the first part, there are fifty Apostolic Canons and sixty decretals of the Roman
popes. Of these sixty decretals, two are partly falsified, while fifty-eight are
altogether spurious. In the second part, among other invented material, there is
the spurious donation of the city of Rome by the Emperor Constantine the Great
to the Roman Pope Silvester.
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In one view, the decretals were invented to counter the Frankish feudal system,
by giving a Roman administrator (the bishop of Rome), among other things, a
say in the election of bishops in the West. In addition, by seating the bishop of
Rome in Constantine’s chair, no Frankish king could rule from Rome. (But see
749 above.)
859 Death of Eulogius, author of Memoriale Sanctorum, a history of the Christian
martyrs in Spain. Eulogius was executed by the Islamic authorities. His
biography was written by Paul of Alvar, who had contested with Bodo (see 838
above).
860 The Rus, sailing in two hundred ships, mounted an attack upon
Constantinople. They withdrew after the Virgin’s robe was processed around the
walls of the city.
860/1 The brothers Cyril and Methodius (see 862 below) sent on a mission to
convert the Khazars. Unfortunately, the Khazars had already (during the 850s)
converted to Judaism, becoming the “thirteenth tribe.” It is thought that the
mission was also diplomatic in nature, designed to persuade the Khazars to
attack the Rus. Already the Khazars had served a strategic purpose in blocking
the advance of Islam through the Caucasus.
861 Muhammed al-Mudabbir became Abbasid minister of finance in Egypt. He
tripled the jizya (protection money) due from Christians and Jews. Many were
unable to pay; consequently, the prisons filled. Churches were looted and
confiscated to raise funds for the diwan (the Islamic treasury). Monks were
imprisoned. The Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, too impoverished to pay the
taxes required of the church, went into hiding.
862 The Irishman John Scotus (called Erigena) translated the works of the
Pseudo-Dionysius into Latin. John lived in the court of Charles the Bald, West
Frankish king (840-77), and also translated works by St. Gregory of Nyssa, St.
Maximos the Confessor, and St. Epiphanios. Scotus wrote De praedestinatione in
response to the ongoing dispute over predestination (see 848, 853), but his work
was condemned by church authorities. Scotus is best known for his De divisione
naturae, an attempt to harmonize Christian doctrine with neo-Platonic
philosophy.
To many, De divisione naturae appeared to have pantheistic
implications.
862 Boris, Khan of the Bulgars, met with King Louis the German (840-76) along
the Danube near Vienna, proposing an alliance against the Romans. Boris
agreed to accept Christianity from the Franks.
862 To counter the encircling alliance of Franks and Bulgars (see 862 above),
Ratislav, prince of Great Moravia (centered near modern Slovakia), requested
that the Roman Emperor Michael III send him missionaries. Photios and the
emperor chose the brothers Methodius (a monk ordained to the priesthood) and
Constantine (a philosophy instructor at the University of Constantinople, who
later took the name Cyril when he became a monk) to head the mission.
German missionaries using a Latin liturgy had entered Great Moravia - see 822
and 831above. Cyril and Methodius were chosen because they spoke Slavic.
Cyril had crafted a Slavonic alphabet and translated liturgical texts and parts of
the scriptures into Slavonic.
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The Roman (Byzantine) missionaries were persecuted by their Frankish
(German) counterparts.
The Franks claimed that there were only three
legitimate languages of worship:
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew - the three
languages employed in the inscription on Christ’s cross. For this reason, Cyril
referred to the Germans as Pilatians, in reference to the trilingual words on the
cross at Calvary.
862-4 Sometime during this period, the Rus sent an embassy to Constantinople.
The Rus ambassadors accepted Christianity.
863 Pope Nicholas I abrogated the Nicene Constitutions in the West by quoting
the Forged Decretals as canon law. He also claimed a supremacy over the old
patriarchates - which was not accepted since it was contrary to the traditional
view of papal primacy as delineated by the ecumenical councils. Eventually, this
novel view of the papacy as a sort of regent contributed to the schism of the
West from the Apostolic Sees of the East, and from the primitive discipline. In
the view of some historians, Nicholas practically established the papacy as the
office is now understood.
863 Roman forces defeated the Saracens in Northern Anatolia.
864 The Franks invaded Moravia and compelled Ratislav to acknowledge their
suzerainity. Since this strengthened the German missionaries’ hand, Cyril and
Methodius travelled to Pannonia (866) and then to Rome (867-8) at the request
of Pole Nicholas I.
864 In exchange for the lifting of a blockade, Boris, king of Bulgaria, agreed to
accept Orthodoxy. Boris attempted to force baptism on his subjects, but they
rebelled. To squelch this pagan rebellion, Boris had 52 boyars and their families
executed.
865-76 Viking raids across eastern England.
866 Photios demanded that the Bulgarian church be subordinate to
Constantinople. Boris refused and sent to Rome and Germany for assistance.
Pope Nicholas I sent a Latin mission to Bulgaria in response, where they expelled
Bishop Hermanrich of Passau and remained until 870. At one point Boris asked
that the head of the Roman delegation, Formosus, bishop of Porto and later Pope
Formosus (891-96) be appointed archbishop of Bulgaria.
Sinc such an
appointment would have violated canon law, Nicholas refused.
866(?) Nicholas I (858-867), bishop of Rome, stated that his sixth century
predecessor, Vigilius, had confirmed all the decisions of the Fifth Ecumenical
Council.
867 Patriarch Photios announced the conversion of the Rus. The extent of this
conversion was likely overestimated.
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867 While in Venice, Cyril and Methodius encountered a group of clerics who
insisted the divine office could be celebrated in only three languages: Hebrew,
Greek and Latin. In the autumn, Cyril and Methodius arrived in Rome, at the
invitation of the pope. They presented Pope Hadrian II (867-72) with the relics
of St. Clement, which they had acquired during their embassy to the Khazars
(860/1). Hadrian placed them in the church of St. Clemente. Cyril and
Methodius asked Hadrian’s permission to use a Slavonic liturgy. The pope, in a
special bull, approved this request.
He also ordained the Moravian and
Pannonian priests whom the brothers had trained. Hadrian also planned to
appoint a bishop for the Slavs who would be independent of German (Salzburg
and Passau) influence. It is likely that he initially had Cyril in view for this post.
867 A synod met at Constantinople. It anathematized the Western doctrine of
the Procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son (filioque) and the
practice of clerical celibacy, “from which usage we see in the West many children
who do not know their fathers.” The synod excommunicated Nicholas I. Photios
was deposed soon thereafter for offending the new emperor, Basil the
Macedonian, but was soon restored (879) and recognized by Pope John VIII
(872-82), Nicholas’ successor.
Photios sent an encyclical to the Patriarchs of the East in which he accused the
Pope (1) of inserting the word “filioque” into the Creed; (2) of intervening in the
newly founded Church of Bulgaria by repeating the chrismation of the Bulgarian
Christians on the pretext that they had previously been baptized by married
priests from Constantinople; (3) of dominating the churches of the West; and (4)
of interfering in disputes outside his own jurisdiction.
867 Vikings raided York.
Side note: Bulgaria had been under Roman jurisdiction until the time of the
Emperor Leo III (718-41), who placed it under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.
867-68 An embassy arrived in Constantinople from the Frankish emperor Louis
II. The expedition’s goal was to arrange an alliance by marriage between the
Franks and the Romans Emperor Basil I (867-86). The unsuccessful embassy
was led by the papal librarian, Anastasius (~810-78), who had opposed Photios
over the filioque. Anastasius remained in Constantinople and attended the
council of 869-70. Anastasius the librarian translated the works of Patriarch
Nicephorus into Latin (see 817 above), and wrote a commentary on the works of
Pseudo-Dionysius.
867-74 The Serbs converted to Christianity.
868 Death of the West Frankish Benedictine monk Ratramnus. He had entered
into controversy with his abbot, Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie, over the nature
of the bread and wine in the eucharist. Ratramnus anticipated the Reformation
in holding an interpretation of Christ’s presence as symbolic. His De corpore was
ordered destroyed by the Council of Vercelli in 1050; and it was condemned at
the Lateran Synod in 1059.
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Ratramnus also argued against Hincmar in favor of predestination to salvation;
but he was himself opposed to the doctrine of predestination to damnation. He
also wrote “Against Greek Opposition” on the filioque controversy. In another
controversy with Radbertus, Ratramnus argued that Christ’s birth was natural.
The more common view was that Mary remained a virgin throughout the process
of childbirth.
869 Death of Cyril. Pope Hadrian appointed Methodius bishop of all Slavonic
churches in Moravia and Pannonia with the title of archbishop of Sirmium.
869 Emperor Basil I convened a synod (called the Eighth Ecumenical Council by
the Latins), and by coercion brought the bishops to condemn Photios. Pope
Adrian II's delegates and Basil forcibly obtained their acknowledgment that the
pope is the “supreme and absolute head of all the Churches, superior even to
ecumenical synods.”
It was at this council that the Roman church finally accepted the decree from the
council of 381 that Constantinople should have second rank, behind Rome.
870-930 Iceland settled from Norway.
870 At a special session of the council that met on March 4, Bulgaria was placed
under the jurisdiction of Conastantinople. Boris expelled the Latin clergy from
his country. Although Ignatios was restored by the council of 869, he betrayed
his Roman supporters by consecrating an archbishop for Bulgaria and sending
Orthodox missionaries there. Bulgaria received an independent archbishopric.
870 Return of Methodius to the Slavic mission field. When he returned to
Morravia, Methodius was arrested, tried at Regensburg, and imprisoned by the
Franks for two and one-half years. Hermanrich, bishop of Passau, attempted to
have at him with a horsewhip. Methodius was eventually released at the
insistence of Pope John VIII (872-82) in May 873 and he returned to the
Moravian mission field.
870 The Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (The Conversion of the
Bavarians and Carantanians) written in Salzburg about this year. It argued for
German rights in the Slav mission field, against east Roman interlopers such as
Cyril and Methodius.
871 Alfred the Great, a warrior and scholar, became king of the West Saxons.
872 The Roman emperor Basil I invaded Armenia to control the Paulicians. They
were a heretical sect believing in two co-eternal principles (good and evil),
rejecting the Old Testament, denying the Incarnation, and holding matter to be
the creation of the evil principle.
874 Pannonia annexed by the east Franks. German missionaries in Moravia and
Pannonia opposed the use of Slavonic in the liturgy and accused Methodius of
heresy.
874 Patriarch Ignatios sent a bishop to the Rus.
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876 The Roman Empire began the re-conquest of southern Italy from the
Saracens.
876 Viking raiders forced the monks of St. Audoen in Rouen to abandon their
monastery.
878 Prince Zdeslav of Croatia acknowledged the sovereignty of Constantinople.
However, he was assassinated by a strong pro-papal party the following year,
and Croatia fell under the influence of Rome thereafter. Branimir, Croatia’s new
leader, swore to keep his nation loyal to the pope.
878 The Aghlabids captured Syracuse. Thousands of the inhabitants were killed
during and after the nine-month seige. Few escaped alive. Syracuse was
pillaged and destroyed.
879-80 In 879, the emperor Basil restored Photios as patriarch of
Constantinople. A council met in Constantinople, sometimes recognized as the
Eighth Ecumenical Council by Orthodox Christians. It reaffirmed the creed of
A.D. 381 and declared any and all additions to the creed invalid. It also placed
Bulgaria formally under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.
Rome and
Constantinople, apparently, agreed not to interfere in the internal affairs of the
other. This council’s teaching was affirmed by the patriarchs Constantinople
(Photios), Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria and by Emperor Basil I. John VIII
(872-882) is believed by some to have accepted the council’s teaching that no
one should add to the creed, while maintaining that the filioque, as a doctrine, is
true. However, both Photios and a letter from John VIII to Photios indicate that
the bishop of Rome believed the filioque to be false. Many believe that John VIII
was unwilling to publicly denounce the filioque because he was fearful of Frankish
military retaliation.
In a private letter to Patriarch Photios (858-867, 877-886), Pope John VIII
assured his colleague that the Filioque was never added to the Creed in Rome
(as had been done by the Franks when they feudalized Northern Italy), that it
was a heresy, but that the question should be handled with great caution... “so
that we will not be forced to allow the addition...” This papal letter was added at
the end of the minutes of the Synod and explains why the Synod did not name
the heretics who were condemned.
The schism finally occurred in 1054, but only after the church in Rome had
accepted the filioque into their liturgy in 1014.
Photios on the filioque: “Everything, therefore, which is seen and spoken of in
the all-holy and consubstantial and coessential Trinity, is either common to all, or
belongs to one only of the three: but the projection of the Spirit, is neither
common, nor, as they say, does it belong to any one of them alone (may
propitiation be upon us, and the blasphemy turned upon their heads). Therefore,
the projection of the Spirit is not at all in the life-giving and all-perfect Trinity.”
And: “For otherwise, if all things common to the Father and the Son, are in any
case common to the Spirit, …and the procession from them is common to the
Father and the Son, the Spirit therefore will then proceed from himself: and He
will be principle of himself, and both cause and caused: a thing which even the
myths of the Greeks never fabricated.”
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880 Pope John VIII appointed a German priest named Wiching bishop of Nitra,
over Methodius’ objections.
880 In a letter to Svatopluk, Ratislav’s nephew and successor as ruler of
Moravia, Pope John VIII stated, “It is certainly not against faith or doctrine to
sing the mass in the Slavonic language, or to read the Holy Gospel or the divine
lessons of the New and Old Testaments well translated and interpreted, or to
chant the other offices of the hours, for He who made the three principal
languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, also created all the others for His own
praise and glory.” However, John imposed a temporary ban on the Slavonic
liturgy.
~884 The Coptic pope Kha’il II (880-907) was imprisoned by the Egyptian
governor, Ahmad ibn Tulan (868-884), who suspected the pope was hiding
riches. The governor finally freed the pope, but forced him to raise 10,000
dinars within one month, and a further 10,000 dinars within four months, as
ransom. As Ahmad ibn Tulan was killed in battle, the second installment was not
paid.
885 Death of Methodius. Bishop Wiching of Nitra convinced Svatopluk, lord of
Moravia, to expel Methodius’ disciples from his territory. The German priests
with their Latin liturgy thus prevailed in Moravia.
885 Basil I established the peninsula of Mount Athos as a place of hesychia in
this year. The origins of the monasticism on Athos are unclear. There were
hermits on the peninsula from the seventh century, having fled the Arab
conquest of the Middle East, including Egypt. Some sources date monasticism on
Mount Athos to the reign of Constantine the Great and his mother, Saint Helen.
The first monastery was established on Athos in 962/63.
Before Basil I’s death in 886, the Narentani accepted Christianity. Pirates, they
had been a threat to shipping in the Adriatic earlier in the ninth century. The
Narentani, known as Pagani to the inhabitants of the Roman cities on the coast
of Dalmatia, were the last tribe in the northwestern Balkans to convert to
Christianity.
886 Due to continuing German persecution and Methodius’ death (see 885),
most of the Slavic clergy in Moravia and Pannonia removed to Constantinople. At
the invitation of King Boris of Bulgaria, Clement and Naum, of Ohrid in
Macedonia, later established a Slavonic academy in Ohrid, which served as an
engine for the conversion of the Slavic peoples. Clement reportedly had 3500
pupils, many of whom became priests. King Boris of Bulgaria assisted with the
establishment of the academy at Ohrid, and with others at Preslav and Pliska.
Some of Cyril and Methodius’ disciples in Moravia were not so fortunate. An
envoy of the Roman Emperor Basil I, on a visit to Venice, observed a group of
them being sold as slaves by Jewish merchants. The Moravians had sold them
into slavery as heretics. The envoy purchased their freedom and sent them to
Constantinople.
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886 Leo VI, known as Leo the Wise or Leo the Philosopher, Roman (Byzantine)
Emperor (886-912). Leo had been educated by Patriarch Photios. He produced
a code of laws that became the legal code for the empire, novels dealing with
secular and ecclesiastical problems, liturgical poems, poetry and military
treatises.
889 The Magyars invaded Bessarabia and Moldavia.
890 The first reference to the use of a cam with a waterwheel. It was being used
at the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland to make beer for the monks. The
cam was key to the wealth of monasteries in the Middle Ages, particularly for the
Cistercians.
893 After a pagan rebellion had been put down, a Bulgarian assembly moved the
capital from Preslav (where the pagan influence was still strong) to Preslav. It
also established Slavonic as the official language, replacing Greek.
894 Two Greek merchants were granted a monopoly over trade between the
empire and Bulgaria. Their transfer of the market from Constantinople to
Thessalonika led to the wars between the Bulgars and Romans of the early tenth
century. The market’s relocation had an adverse effect on the towns along the
route south to Constantinople.
895 The earliest extant copy of the Masoretic text - the Cairo Codex of the
Prophets - dates from about this year.
895 Seeking assistance against Magyar raiders, two Bohemian lords sought
German aid at Regensburg, acknowledging the German king as overlord.
896 In March, the Synod horrenda sat in judgement on the corpse of Pope
Formosus (891-96), who had died eight months earlier. The corpse was dressed
in its robes of office and sat upon the papal throne. The accusation against
Formosus was that he had transferred seats – become the bishop of Rome while
bishop of another diocese, contrary to canon law – but his real crime was
betraying one of Charlemagne’s descendants in favor of another. Soon after the
trial, Rome was shaken by an earthquake, which was taken as an evil omen.
Stephen VII (896-97) was strangled. Seven popes and anti-popes contended for
the bishopric of Rome over the next few years. The chaos ended when Cardinal
Sergius, an affiliate of Stephen, gained the papacy with the military backing of a
feudal lord.
899 The Magyars sacked Pavia in northern Italy, massacring the inhabitants and
torching 43 churches.
900-907 The Magyars raided Bavaria.
The Tenth Century
901 The Magyars raided Carinthia (~the western part of modern Austria).
902 The Saracens conquered Sicily, until then a part of the Roman (Byzantine)
Empire.
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905 The Saracens destroyed the library of the monastery of Novalesa.
than six thousand, five hundred volumes were lost.
More
906St. Boris-Michael of Bulgaria (820-906) died. Boris had been king of Bulgaria
when he came to believe in Christ. He wrote to the emperor in Constantinople
telling him that he wished to be baptized. The Patriarch Photius sent a bishop,
and afterwards corresponded with Boris. Toward the end of his life, he retired to
a monastery.
The work of translating Greek literature into Slavonic was undertaken in Bulgaria
at about this time, largely through the efforts of the royal monastery of St.
Panteleimon.
In 907, a priest named Constantine translated Athanasius’
Discourse against the Arians into Slavonic. The works of St. John of Damascus
were also translated, as was St. Basil the Great’s Hexaemeron. The Bulgarian
king, Symeon (Boris’ third son) oversaw a translation of some of St. John
Chrysostom’s works.
906 The Magyars conquered Moravia.
906 On Christmas day, the patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas Mysticus, closed
the gates of St. Sophia in the emperor Leo VI’s face. This act was to protest
Leo’s fourth marriage.
907 The Russian prince Oleg sailed to Constantinople and obtained a treaty
regulating the privileges of Russian merchants within the empire. The treat was
ratified in 911.
910 William of Aquitaine founded a monastery at Cluny which was to play an
important role in the reform of the church in the West and the revival of the
monastic life.
911 First Norse settlement in what later became known as Normandy. The West
Frankish King Charles the Simple (898-922) settled a group of Vikings under a
certain Rollo in the vicinity of Rouen.
913 The Magyars raided Saxony, Thuringia, and Swabia.
913 Symeon of Bulgaria laid siege to Constantinople. Symeon lifted the siege
when given the title Emperor of Bulgaria and promised that one of his daughters
would (eventually) marry the emperor Constantine, then a minor.
This
agreement was reneged upon when Zoe, Constantine’s mother, took control of
the government. War ensued, continuing sporadically through 924.
914 Theodora, the ruler of Rome, had John, bishop of Ravenna, transferred to
become John X (914-28), bishop of Rome. He had been her lover, and, under
her patronage, had progressed in rank from simple cleric to bishop. Mazoria,
who bore a son, John, by Pope Sergius III (904-11), was Theodora’s daughter,
presumably by her husband Theophylact, an ally of Sergius. Mazoria’s son John
became bishop of Rome in 931.
917 East Anglia, a Viking kingdom, conquered by the king of Wessex.
917 The Magyars raided southern Germany and Alsace.
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918 Rollo, lord of the Vikings near Rouen, invited the monks of St. Audoen to
return to their monastery. See 876 above.
920+ A priest named Gabriel sent from the Roman (Byzantine) Empire as a
missionary to the Magyars.
922 Ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveler, described Rus sacrifices for successful trading
missions. Clearly Christianity had yet to penetrate deeply into the Rus nation.
924 The Magyars attacked Pavia in northern Italy (south of Milan), sacking 44
churches. (See 899.) Magyars also defeated German forces near the Lech River
(a tributary of the Danube).
924 In about this year, Symeon of Bulgaria laid waste to Serbia.
925 At the request of the pope, a synod of the clergy of Dalmatia forbade the
Slavonic liturgy, except where a shortage of Latin-speaking clergy made it
necessary.
925 The Aleppo Codex - a portion of the Hebrew Old Testament - was copied in
~ this year. See note on the Leningrad Codex, 1008.
925 A young boy named Pelayo was martyred in Cordoba, Spain. He had been
given as a hostage in exchange for the release of Bishop Hermogius of Tuy, his
uncle.
926 Symeon’s Bulgar forces devastated by King Tomislav’s Croatians.
927 An independent Bulgarian patriarchate was formed after the death of
Symeon. To mitigate the influence the Bulgarian government would exert over
him, the patriarch’s see was placed at Silistria, on the Danube, far from the
capital, Preslav.
929 On September 28, Wencelaus (Vaclav, born ~907), king of Bohemia,
murdered by his brother Boleslav at the door of a church while on his way to
mass. Wencelaus’ Christian grandmother had been murdered by his pagan
mother Drahomira (Dragomir), who ruled until Wencelaus came of age in 924/5.
Boleslav’s action was part of a conspiracy against Wencelaus motivated by the
king’s submission to the German king Henry I the Fowler (919-936) in the face of
a threatened German invasion in 929. Boleslav moved his brother’s remains to
the Church of St. Vitus in Prague in 932 after miracles began to occur at
Wencelaus’ tomb. He is regarded as the patron saint of Bohemia and is the
subject of the nineteenth century Christmas carol, “Good King Wencelaus.”
(Aside - the liturgy in Bohemia at the time was celebrated in Old Church
Slavonic.)
933 A Magyar force was defeated at Gotha.
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933 Sometime between this year and 956, Tsar Peter of Bulgaria received a
letter from Theophylact Lecapenus, patriarch of Constantinople, providing advice
on how to deal with the Bogomils. This heretical sect was similar in doctrine to
the Paulicians, holding that the body is evil because created by the evil one, the
god of the Old Testament. The Bogomils forbade marriage, condemning it as the
devil’s law. They denied the Incarnation, because the good God could not have
stained himself by contacting wicked matter. They took their name from the
priest Bogomil (Theophilus), the sect’s founder. The Bogomils may have been
influenced by the Paulicians, introduced into the Balkans in 757.
(For a
description of their behavior and attitudes, see 970.)
936 Otto the Great (936-973) was crowned in Aachen by the archbishop of
Mainz. He was given Charlemagne’s sword, scepter, and Sacred Lance (said to
be the spear that had been thrust into Christ’s side). Otto established close
control over the church, particularly through what came to be called “lay
investiture.” That is, Otto exercised the right to determine who would fill the
higher church offices.
936 Death of Archbishop Unni of Hamburg-Bremen while on a mission trip to
Birka in Sweden. Before entering Sweden, Unni had ordained priests for the
church in Denmark.
939-57 During this period the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla conducted raids into
Armenia, the region near Melitene, and Cappadocia, burning villages and the
surrounding countryside and enslaving many prisoners.
940+ A group of Magyars led by a certain Bultsu was baptized in Constantinople.
Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Constantine VII, 913-59) stood as godfather.
Bultsu later apostatized (see 955, the battle of Lechfeld). A bit later, the Magyar
chief Gyula was baptized in Constantinople.
He brought a monk named
Hierotheus home with him. Hierotheus converted many to the faith. The Roman
(Byzantine) influence among the Magyars was concentrated east of the Tisza
(Theiss) River.
943 Magyars invaded Italy again.
945 A peace treaty between the Roman Empire and Prince Igor of Kiev indicates
that there was a Christian community and church building in Kiev by this date.
949 A manuscript containing the work of the pharmacologist Dioscorides, who
had flourished in the first century, was presented by the Romans as a gift at the
court in Cordoba.
950 By the tenth or eleventh century, the horse collar was in use in northern
Europe. This allowed oxen to be replaced by horses in the fields, increasing food
production. The horse collar may have originated in Bactria in the 6th century as
a camel harness.
951 The German Emperor Otto I (Otto the Great) took control of northern Italy.
CHURCH HISTORY - 155
953 An ambassador from Germany met with Bishop John of Cordoba. John
reportedly attributed pagan (Islamic) rule to the sinfulness of the Christians. He
said, “provided no harm is done to our religion, we obey them [the Muslim
rulers] in all else, and do their commands in all that does not affect our faith.”
954 Death of Eric Bloodaxe, last Viking king of York. Eric, who had arrived in
England in about 947, died a Christian.
955 The Magyars raided as far west as Burgundy. The German Emperor Otto I
defeated them at the Battle of Lechfeld (near Augsburg), and the Magyars
subsequently settled in Pannonia, modern Hungary. The Magyar leader Bultsu,
who had converted to Christianity (see 940+), was hanged at Regensburg for
apostasy.
955 Octavian, the son of Alberic, second son of Mazoria, became bishop of Rome,
John XII (955-963). Like his grandmother, John was a man of great sexual
appetite, often rewarding his lovers with tracts of papal land. Alberic had ruled
Rome well for twenty years since overthrowing his mother and, during his reign,
the bishop of Rome had a purely spiritual office. But he insured that his son
Octavian would be both temporal ruler and pope. The papal practice of having
dual names began with John/Octavian.
957 Prince Igor of Kiev’s widow, Olga, traveled to Constantinople and was
baptized by the patriarch, taking the name Helen. When she returned to Kiev,
she built a church dedicated to the Holy Wisdom.
958 Sometime between his ascent to the throne of Denmark in this year upon
the death of his father, Gorm the Old, and 961, King Harald accepted
Christianity. Harald was reportedly impressed by a priest named Poppo whose
hand suffered no damage when pressed to hot iron. Poppo became bishop of
Wurzburg in 961, possibly his reward for successful missionary work, bestowed
by his sponsor, the German Emperor Otto I. (At this time, the king of the Danes
controlled both Denmark and southern Sweden and Norway - and thus trade by
water between the North and Baltic seas,)
959 Olga of Kiev sent an embassy to Otto the Great. He, in turn, sent Adalbert,
a monk of Trier and later archbishop of Magdeburg, Germany, who remained in
Kiev from 961-61, but without success.
960+ A certain Sigefrid ordained bishop of Norway.
961 The Roman (Byzantine) Empire recovered Crete.
961/2 To associate himself with Charlemagne, the German Emperor Otto,
wearing Charlemagne’s mantle, was crowned emperor in Rome by John XII.
Thus began the Holy Roman Empire. John had sent for Otto to protect him from
the Lombard duke Berengar. Soon after his coronation, Otto asserted that future
bishops of Rome would be required to swear fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor.
962 Olga’s son Svyatoslav became prince of Kiev (see 959).
Svyatoslav
supported paganism, reportedly rejecting conversion to Christianity with the
words, “My retainers will laugh at me.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 156
962/3 The Great Lavra monastery was established by Saint Athanasios
(Athanasius) of Trebizond this year. This was the first monastery on the
peninsula of Mount Athos. The emperor Nikephoros Phokas (963-69) supported
Athanasios’ efforts. Prior to this time, Mount Athos was dominated by hermits,
many of whom resented Athanasios’s innovations.
963 Pope John XII died from the effects of a beating he had taken at the hands
of a man who found him in bed with his wife. At the time, Otto was on his way
to Rome to depose John for conspiring with the Magyars and Constantinople.
John was dissatisfied with the moral ways Otto had attempted to force upon him.
964 Mieszko, ruler of Poland, married the daughter of Boleslas I of Bohemia. The
bride was named Dobrava.
965 Tsar Peter of Bulgaria demanded the payment due him from the Roman
empire according to the peace treaty of 927. The emperor Nicephorus Phocas
engaged the Russians to attack Bulgaria.
965 The Eastern Roman Empire recovered Cyprus.
966 Mieszko of Poland baptized, having been converted through the efforts of
this wife, Dobrava.
967 A Russian army under Svyatoslav, prince of Kiev, crossed the Danube at the
behest of the Roman emperor Nicephorus Phocas and destroyed the Bulgarian
army. Svyatoslav intended to place his new capital at Little Preslav, near the
Danube delta. The Russians then planned a campaign against the Romans, their
former allies.
968 Magdeburg became an archbishopric, sanctioned by Pope John XIII (96572). The German Emperor Otto I intended it to be the metropolitan see for the
Slavs on the east side of the Elbe and Saale Rivers, who were in the process of
conversion to Christianity (but see 983 below, the Wends).
968 A bishop named John set up a mission station for evangelizing the Poles at
Poznan (Pozen).
968 When Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, visited Constantinople in this year, he
was unimpressed by the Greek bishops. Unlike Western bishops, they were not
commonly wealthy or influential politically.
969 Beginning of the Fatimid rule over Egypt. Shi’ites, the Fatimids were
relatively tolerant of Jews and Christians, and many were employed in
government administrative offices.
The Fatimid Caliph Al-Mu’izz (969-975)
permitted the construction of new churches and the renovation of older ones. He
also allowed Muslims who had originally been Copts to return to their former
faith. Fatimid rule continued until 1171.
CHURCH HISTORY - 157
970 The Bulgarian priest Cosmas wrote an account of the doctrine of the
Bogomils: “They say that everything exists by the will of the Devil: the sky, the
sun, the stars, the air, man, churches, crosses; all that comes from God they
ascribe to the Devil; in brief, they consider all that moves on earth, animate and
inanimate, to be of the Devil.
“In appearance the heretics are lamb-like, gentle, modest and silent, and pale
from hypocritical fasting. They do not talk idly, nor laugh loudly, nor give
themselves airs. They keep away from the sight of men, and outwardly they do
everything so as not to be distinguished from Orthodox Christians. … The
people, on seeing their great humility, think that they are Orthodox and able to
show them the path of salvation: they approach and ask them how to save their
souls. Like a wolf that wants to seize a lamb, they first cast their eyes
downwards, sigh and answer with humility. … Wherever they meet any simple or
uneducated man, they sow the tares of their teaching, blaspheming the
traditions and rules of holy Church.
“They teach their own people not to obey their lords, they revile the wealthy,
hate the tsar, ridicule the elders, condemn the boyars, regard as vile in the sight
of God those who serve the tsar, and forbid every servant to work for his
master.”
971 The Roman emperor John Tzimisces crushed the Russian forces in the
Balkans and restored the northern border of the empire to the Danube. Imperial
control had not extended this far north for approximately 300 years.
971 Pilgrim became bishop of Passau (971-91). He is believed to have invented
episodes in the history of the see of Passau to aggrandize his own bishopric
relative to Salzburg. In a letter to Pope Benedict VII (974-83), Pilgrim indicated
that he was too occupied with the conversion of the Hungarians (Magyars) to
travel to Rome. He also stressed his adherence to the filioque clause - an
important point since Roman (Byzantine) missionaries were also laboring in
Hungary.
972 The Roman Emperor John Tzimisces (John I, 969-76) conquered eastern
Bulgaria.
973 Wolfgang, formerly a monk of Reichenau, ordained bishop of Regensburg.
At the behest of Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, Wolfgang had been a missionary to
the Magyars. He continued to press for Magyar conversions until he died in 994.
976 Esato (Judith), a Jewish queen of Aksum (Axum), oppressed the Christian
population of that kingdom. Aksum was located in what is now northern
Ethiopia. Its kings had converted to Christianity in the fourth century. In the
sixth century (532), Aksum's influence spread temporarily to southern Arabia,
Himyar (~Yemen) becoming a vassal state.
976 When the Roman emperor John Tzimisces died, there was conflict in the
capital over the succession. Samuel, son of a provincial governor in Macedonia,
took this opportunity to establish a kingdom which grew to occupy most of the
former Bulgarian kingdom. War ensued between Samuel’s kingdom and the
empire, ending in 1014 with Basil II’s victory in the pass of Kleidion.
CHURCH HISTORY - 158
978 Vikings raided Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain (the kingdom
of Leon).
~980 Geza became the first Magyar (Hungarian) ruler to accept Christianity. It
seems, however, that Geza simply added the Christian god to his pantheon.
(With the settlement of the Magyars in Hungary after the battle of Lechfeld, 955,
east-west trade through the region grew.)
980 The Norse ruler of Dublin, Olaf Cuaran, abdicated, then sailed to Iona as a
penitent. Formerly king of York, Cuaran had been baptized in King Edmund of
Wessex’s court between 941 and 944.
980 Symeon, later known as the “New Theologian,” became abbot at St.
Mamas’s monastery near Constantinople. Symeon stressed the importance of
striving for a vision of the Divine Light through prayer. His tenure as abbot
ended in 1009 due to a dispute with the patriarch of Constantinople.
981 Zamora in the kingdom of Leon was destroyed by Muslim raiders.
thousand prisoners were deported.
Four
982 Eric the Red discovered Greenland.
982 The German Emperor Otto II (973-83) lost a battle to the Saracens at Cap
Colonne in Calabria. This led to the Wendish uprising of the following year.
983 Otto II appointed Peter of Pavia to the papacy. He became John XIV (98384). As a Lombard, he was the first non-Roman pope in recent times. The
Roman populace were in a turmoil.
983 The Wends revolted against the Germans. Germans had made incursions
east of the Elbe, the Wends’ homeland, during this century. The pagan Wends Slavic tribes: Wagrians, Abotrites, Polabrians, Rugians, etc., - pushed the
Germans back as far as Hamburg. The bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelburg
were destroyed. Nunneries at Kalbe and Hillersleben were raided. Magdeburg
was protected by an army raised by the archbishop.
983 Aladbert (Vojtech), a Bohemian nobleman, became the first non-German
bishop of Prague. His appointment was supported by the German Emperor Otto
II but opposed by Duke Boleslas II of Bohemia. Friction increased when Adalbert
attempted to reform Bohemian ethics. He criticized their polygamy, clerical
marriages, and the sale of Christians into slavery.
985 Barcelona was burned down by Muslim raiders. Its inhabitants were killed or
taken prisoner.
988 Aladbert, bishop of Prague, deserted his see.
entered the monastery of San Alessio.
He traveled to Italy and
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989The conversion of Russia. Vladimir of Kiev (son of Svyatoslav and known as
Vladimir Ravnoapostolny, “ranking with the apostles”) was baptized and married
to the Roman (Byzantine) princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor
Basil II. Mass baptisms followed Vladimir’s. Vladimir later established bishoprics
at Novgorod and Belgorod and a seminary at Kiev for the instruction of native
clergy.
992 Adalbert of Prague returned to his see at the command of the archbishop of
Mainz. But he left for Rome in 994 after clashing with Duke Boleslas II again. In
Rome, Adalbert became part of a group of intellectuals in the court of the
German Emperor Otto III (983-1002).
994 Olaf Tryggvason, later to be king of Norway, confirmed, in England.
995 Olaf Tryggvason traveled to Norway, intent upon becoming king. One of his
companions was an English bishop. Olaf ruled from 995 to 999.
995 Death of King Eric the Victorious of Sweden. Eric had converted to
Christianity, but apostatized before his death. Eric’s son Olof (995-1022) was
reportedly converted to Christianity by an English bishop.
Olof’s mother,
incidentally, was a daughter of Duke Mieszko of Poland. Olof founded a bishopric
at Skara, north of modern Stockholm, whose first incumbent was Thorgaut, sent
from Hamburg-Bremen.
995 According to Agi Thorgilson’s Islendingabok (circa 1120), King Olaf
Tryggvason of Norway sent a German bishop named Thangbrand to convert the
Icelanders in this year.
Tryggvason reportedly encouraged conversion by
threatening to kill or disfigure several Icelandic hostages he held in Norway. In
the year 1000, the Icelanders accepted Christianity.
995 King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway reportedly sailed to Orkney and forced
Sigurd the Stout, a lord of northern Scotland, to accept Christianity.
996/7 Adalbert, the bishop of Prague in self-imposed exile in Rome, was chosen
as missionary to the Poles. His selection was astute, since the Poles and
Bohemians were at odds over lands in Silesia, and Adalbert was not a friend of
the Bohemian ruler Boleslas II. Adalbert traveled to Gdansk, then east across
the Vistula River, where the pagan Prussians killed him in April 997. His body
was returned to Gniezo and buried.
996 Built by craftsmen from the Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the Tithe Church
was consecrated in Kiev in this year. The Old Church Slavonic liturgy was
introduced by priests from Bulgaria.
997 Before Geza of Hungary’s death in this year, his son Waik married Gisela,
Duke Henry of Bavaria’s sister. (Henry was to become the German Emperor
Henry II in 1002.) The marriage indicates that Waik was already a Christian,
since it would not have occurred otherwise. Waik adopted the Christian name
Stephen. (See 1001 for further events in the conversion of Hungary.) Stephen’s
marriage to Gisela was likely motivated to prevent Hungary’s being absorbed into
the expanding Roman Empire.
CHURCH HISTORY - 160
997 Bishop Ramward of Minden carried a processional cross into battle against
the Slavs.
998 Death of St. Nikon the Penitent, a missionary in the Mani peninsula. By this
time, most of the Slavs of the Balkan region had been converted to Christianity
through the efforts of Orthodox missionaries.
998 Odilo of Cluny instituted the observance of All Saints’ Day on November 2
(see 835 above). Given Cluny’s influence, this practice spread, though it was
never officially sanctioned by the church in Rome.
999 According to legend, Eric the Red’s son Leif converted to Christianity during
a trip to King Olaf Tryggvason’s Norway.
1000 The German Emperor Otto III visited Gniezno (Gnesen) in Poland to
venerate the shrine of Adalbert. At the Congress of Gniezno, Otto set up the
archbishopic of Gniezno and the bishoprics of Cracow, Wroclaw, and Kolobrzeg.
Adalbert became the national patron saint.
1000 Castile was burned by Muslims. The portion of the population that escaped
slaughter was enslaved and deported.
1000 By this time, the horse shoe was in use in northern Europe. It allowed
horses to be used in all weather and on rougher terrain, further increasing
productivity. With the introduction of the three-field crop rotation system, the
center of wealth in Europe began to move northward, and the population began
to rise.
By this year, the papal chancery consistently dated documents using the Anno
Domini system.
The Eleventh Century
1001 The title “king” bestowed on Stephen (Waik) of Hungary. King Stephen
adopted St. Peter as patron saint of the Hungarian people. Pope Sylvester II
(999-1003) agreed to the establishment of a Hungarian archbishopric, which
eventually was placed in Esztergom (Gran). See also 1038.
Treating him as Roman emperor, Sylvester coordinated decisions on
ecclesiastical matters with Otto III, even those concerning lands outside the
bounds of Otto III’s territory. Because of his role in the establishment of
independent archbishoprics in Poland and Hungary, the German church, which
had been anxious to extend its authority in those regions, revolted against the
emperor. In this era, the German chuch was a critical source of imperial funds
and manpower.
1004 The Fatimid Caliph Hakim began a 10-year persecution of Christians in
southern Syria and Palestine.
1008 The Leningrad Codex dates to this year. It is the oldest complete copy of
the Hebrew Old Testament and is the source document for most modern English
Old Testament translations.
CHURCH HISTORY - 161
1009 Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
1014, Hakim had burned or pillaged 30,000 churches.
By
1009 Bruno of Querfurt, a German nobleman, killed by the Prussians. Bruno had
been ordained a missionary bishop to the Slavs in 1004 and worked the area
between Ukraine and Sweden. He also authored a biography of Adalbert, bishop
of Prague (see 996/7).
1013 The Caliph Hakim allowed Christians to emigrate into Roman (Byzantine)
territory, as a concession to the Emperor.
1014The Nicene Creed is believed to have been used in the liturgy at Rome for
the first time, at the coronation of the German (Holy Roman) Emperor Henry II
(1002-24). The creed included the filioque clause.
1014 The Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Basil II (963-1025) conquered western
Bulgaria.
1015 Tuy in northwestern Spain raided by Norsemen. The episcopal see there
was vacant until 1070.
1015 King Olaf Haraldsson took Norway out from under Danish control. Olaf
ruled until 1028, when he escaped Canute (see 1015/16) and fled to Russia.
During his reign, Olaf brought clergy from England to Norway. Olaf died in 1030
in an attempt to retake the throne. When exhumed in 1031, his body was
discovered incorrupt, and Olaf was deemed a saint and martyr.
1015/16 King Canute conquered England. In 1019, he took Denmark, and
Norway in 1028. Canute’s empire fell apart at his death in 1035.
1016 Hakim’s friend Darazi announced that Hakim was God. By 1017, Hakim
restored religious liberty to the Christians and returned their confiscated
property. Hakim substituted his name for that of Allah in mosque services.
Hakim disappeared in 1021, but Darazi’s followers, the Druze, believe he will
come again.
1018 A resurgent Roman (Byzantine) Empire conquered and annexed Macedonia
and Bulgaria.
1020 In Toulouse in about this year, a certain chaplain named Hugh was given
the task of striking “a Jew, as is always the custom there each Easter.” Hugh
struck the man so hard that he died. This “custom” was perhaps indicative of an
increasingly un-Christian attitude (see 1040 & 1096).
1022 During the reign of Anund (1022-39), son of Olof, the Christian faith
became widespread in Sweden.
1022 The synod of Pavia, attended by the German emperor Henry II,
promulgated decrees designed to reform abuses in the Western church.
CHURCH HISTORY - 162
1025 During his tenure as Patriarch of Constantinople, Alexius the Studite (102543) restricted monks and clergy seeking justice to the church courts and
standardized the payments due from lower clergy to their bishops. Alexius also
began anew the persecution of Jacobites, at this time centered near Melitene. In
an attempt to check lay patronage of monasteries (known as kharistike), he
began a registry of monastic property and patronage rights,
the
chartophylakeion.
1027 Canute, king of England, journeyed to Rome as a pilgrim.
1028 Sihtic, son of Olaf Cuaran of Dublin (see 980), went on pilgrimage to Rome
and likely negotiated a bishopric for Dublin.
1030 A Russian trading center was founded in Yuryev (Tartu), Estonia,
surrounding an Orthodox cathedral of St. George.
1032 The fourteen year old Theophylact (grandson of Count Gregory of
Tusculum, himself son or grandson of Alberic, son of Mazoria) was elected Pope
Benedict IX (1045, 47-48).
1036 Luke ordained bishop of Novgorod. He was the first native Russian to hold
episcopal office.
1038 Death of King Stephen of Hungary. Stephen’s Edict, a collection of
ecclesiastical legislation, required attendance at church, observation of Sunday
as a sabbath, and fasting during Lent. He had implemented a plan to insure at
least one church for every ten settlements. The contemporary historian Rudolfus
Glaber wrote, “The Hungarians, previously accustomed to prey on their
neighbors, now freely give of their own for Christ’s sake. They who formerly
pillaged the Christians ... now welcome them like brothers and children.” (In this
period east-west trade and pilgrimages to the Holy Land caused an increase in
traffic through Hungary.)
1039 At some point in his reigh, Emund, king of Sweden, half-brother to his
predecessor, Anund, replaced the bishop Adalward of Skara with a certain
Osmund, possibly an Englishman. Adalward had been sent from HamburgBremen.
1040 About this year Rodulfus Glaber (Ralph the Bald) blamed the Jews of
Orleans for the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (see 1009).
Ralph stated that the Jews wrote to “the prince of Cairo” encouraging him to
destroy the church - “that if he did not quickly destroy the venerable church of
the Christians, then they would soon occupy his whole realm, depriving him of all
his power.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 163
1042 A Christian Wend named Gottschalk rose to power among the Wagrians
and Abotrites, the westernmost Wendish tribes. Gottschalk had been educated
in a Saxon monastery in Luneburg. When a Saxon killed his father, Gottschalk
had returned home to wage a war of vengeance, but he had been captured by
Duke Bernhard of Saxony. Bernhard had released Gottschalk, who had entered
the service of King Canute of Denmark, Sweden, and England. After returning to
his native land in this year, Gottschalk married a daughter of the Danish King
Sweyn, built churches, established monasteries, and invited German priests into
the land. Bishoprics were established at Oldenburg and Mecklenburg.
1042 The Patriarch Alexius the Studite endorsed the popular revolt against the
Emperor Michael V (1041-42). Michael, known as the Caulker, was deposed.
1045 Giovanni Gratiano became Pope Gregory VI (1045-46). He purchased the
papacy from Benedict IX for 1500 pounds of gold. Benedict had led a profligate
life as pope, but fell in love with Gratiano’s niece. He wanted to marry her, but
did not want to abdicate the papacy to do so without profit. Benedict later
changed his mind and returned to Rome as pope. A third claimant, Sylvester III,
also arose. In 1046, the situation was resolved by the Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV at synods in Sutri and Rome.
Michael Psellus (1018-1078) was chosen by the emperor Constantine IX (104254) to head the philosophy department of the recently founded imperial
university. After the schism began, Psellus was strongly opposed to reunion with
Rome. Due to Psellus' influence as Consul of the Philosophers, the emphasis of
philosophy returned to its Platonic roots, the idealism of the Cappadocians, and
away from the Aristotelian thrust which had been promoted by Photius.
1046 The Emperor Constantine IX (1042-54) began rebuilding the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. A German Saxon, Suidger of Bamburg, was appointed pope (
Clement II) by the German (Holy Roman) Emperor Henry IV. Benedict was
canonically deposed.
1049 Founding of the monastery of the Theotokos Euergetis in Constantinople by
a certain former civil servant named Paul.
This monastery became very
influential, in part because of the support it received from the imperial family.
Paul composed a florilegium, known as the Euergetinos, which included a many
saints’ lives and became popular, adding to the monastery’s influence.
1050The investiture controversy. Some see the period from 1050 to 1130 as
one of a major world revolution. In this view, the revolutionaries are the
Gregorian reformers who complain about the interference of laymen in church
affairs, simony in particular. Their ideal society has complete freedom of the
church from control by the state, the negation of the sacramental character of
kingship, and the domination of the papacy over secular rulers. The radical
revolutionary leaders are Humbert and Hildebrand, while Peter Damiani is seen
as a moderate.
CHURCH HISTORY - 164
The reform movement may have been motivated by a desire to maintain a
distinction between the clergy and laity, which was in danger of being obscured
by the rising level sanctity among the common people. Kings such as Henry III
(1039-56) of Germany and Edward the Confessor (1042-66) of England were
extremely pious, as were many nobles. If the clergy (and the monasteries) were
perceived as no more holy than the common people, how could their rights and
privileges continue to be maintained?
1050 Berengar of Tours, canon of the cathedral and head of the school of SaintMartin, began teaching a theory of the eucharist in which the Lord was present in
a spiritual sense only. Berengar wrote to Lanfranc, then a teacher in Normandy
but later archbishop of Canterbury (1070-89) against the latter's condemnation
of Ratramnus. Lanfranc was absent when the letter arrived, however, and was
passed by others along to Pope Leo III, who excommunicated Berengar and
ordered him to appear at the Council of Vercelli. Berengar traveled to Paris to
obtain permission from King Henry I to attend the council, and Henry had him
imprisoned.
The De corpore of Ratramnus (see 868 above) was ordered
destroyed by the Council of Vercelli, and Berengar was condemned in absentia.
1050 Between about this year and 1250, most of Spain reconquered from the
Muslims. Only Granada and a small amount of nearby territory held out - until
1492.
1051 Founding of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev.
1052 The relics
Constantinople.
of
Symeon
the
New
Theologian
were
translated
to
1052 The Normans had been forcing the Greeks in Roman (Byzantine) Italy to
conform to Latin usages; the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius
(1043-59), in return demanded that the Latin churches at Constantinople should
adopt Greek practices, and in 1052, when they refused, he closed them. (Angold
places the church closings in 1049.)
1053 Pope Leo IX (1049-54), in a letter to Bishop Thomas of Carthage,
mentioned that there were only five bishops left in North Africa. In Augustine’s
time (circa 400), there had been over 600.
1054The Great Schism. The Patriarch Michael Cerularius wrote a letter to Bishop
John of Trania in Italy enumerating the innovations of the Roman Church.
Cerularius asked John to give the letter a wide hearing in order that the truth
might prevail. Pope Leo IX (1049-54) sent a sharp reply, severely rebuking
Cerularius. Indeed, he accused the Greeks of having changed the Nicene Creed!
CHURCH HISTORY - 165
The Emperor of Constantinople, Constantine Monomachos (1042-55, also termed
Monomathus), facing a threat of his political interest in Italy, had need of the
pope's help. Monomachos sent a conciliatory reply asking Leo IX to send
delegates to restore friendly relations. The pope sent Cardinal Humbert with a
different mission, which he fully executed. Humbert did not meet the emperor or
the patriarch, but instead placed a bull of excommunication against the Eastern
Church on the altar of the Church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople. The bull
stigmatized the Eastern Church as “the repository of all the heresies of the past.”
Humbert hastily departed.
The patriarch in turn drew up a sentence of
excommunication against the Western Church, signed jointly by the other
patriarchs.
1056 Death of Jaroslav the Wise, son of Vladimir and prince of Kiev. During his
reign, Jaroslav rebuilt the Church of Holy Wisdom in Kiev and founded the
monastery of St. George. His daughters married the kings of Norway and
Hungary. Jaroslav’s wife, Ingigard, who had come from Sweden, founded the
monastery of St. Irene.
1057 Michael Celularius, the patriarch of Constantinople, arranged the downfall
of the Emperor Michael VI Stratiotikos and had Isaac Comnenus, a general,
made emperor. In return, Comnenus allowed the patriarch to name the chief
patriarchal administrators.
1057/58 According to a thirteenth century source, Michael Celularius called a
council which removed the patriarch of Rome’s name from the diptychs.
1058
The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Isaac Comnenus accused Michael
Celularius of usurping imperial authority. Celularius was never brought to trial,
as he died in 1059. Some historians speculate that Michael’s attitude had been
influenced by reading the Donation of Constantine, which Cardinal Humbert had
carried to the emperor and patriarch in 1054. Since the second and fourth
ecumenical councils had given the patriarch the same privileges as the pope,
Michael may have argued on that basis for additional authority. This explanation
is present in the works of Theodore Balsamon, a twelfth century canon lawyer.
Michael Psellus acted a prosecutor for the emperor. The conflict between Psellus
and Celularius dated back at least to Humbert’s visit in 1053/54, when Psellus
had acted on behalf of the emperor. While Celularius obtained canonization for
Symeon the New Theologian, Psellus had less use for mystics. He allowed that
mystic, apophatic knowledge was possible, but refused to see it as the sole
ground for Christianity, since it was inherently selfish and contributed little if
anything to society. Reason, on the other hand, he saw as a more sure method
of approach to God, and it promoted a fruitful life within the larger Christian
community.
CHURCH HISTORY - 166
1059 Cardinal Humbert was responsible for the publication of two works
reforming the western church. One limited involvement in the election of the
Pope to the college of cardinals. Prior to this time, the German emperor, Henry
III (1039-56), had regularly elected popes on his own. His son, Henry IV (10561106), was in his minority at this time, and his family were involved in a struggle
with the German nobility. The second work was The Three Books Against the
Simoniacs. It redefined simony from “the buying and selling of church offices” to
“any interference by laymen in church affairs,” thus accusing most of the rulers
of Europe of grave sin. In this work Humbert also called on the faithful to refuse
to take the sacraments from any priest whose personal conduct they considered
unworthy, effectively reviving the Donatist heresy.
This advise was later
condemned by the papacy.
1059 The De corpore of Ratramnus (see 868 and 1050 above) was condemned
at the Lateran Synod held this year.
1059 The papacy, at first alarmed by the Norman conquest of Sicily and southern
Italy, began to forge an alliance with the Normans against the German emperor
(at that time, Henry IV, 1056-1106).
1059 At a Lateran council held in this year, Pope Nicholas II (1059-61)
established new procedures for the election of popes, giving a controlling voice to
the cardinals. Earlier, the bishop of Rome had frequently been chosen by the
Roman nobility or the German emperor. In fact, when Stephen IX died in 1058,
the Roman nobility and a minority of the cardinals had chosen Benedict X as
pope, while the majority of the cardinals had supported Nicholas, then Gerhard,
bishop of Florence.
Nicholas’ election had been secured through Cardinal
Hildebrand’s influence over the German emperor.
1060 A synod of Spalatum (Croatia) forbade the ordination of Slavs unless they
were literate in Latin. This appears to have been directed against the Slavonic
liturgy.
1061 Sometime during his papacy, Pole Alexander II (1061-73) wrote to the
bishops of Spain to protect the Jews from warriors fighting the Saracens.
1061 Richeldis, the lady of the manor at Little Walsingham, Norfolk, England,
had three visions of the Virgin Mary in which Mary showed her the house where
she had lived in Nazareth. Mary instructed Richeldis to build a copy of the house.
It is said that Richeldis’ workmen began a structrure in the style then current.
The following day, they found it 70 yards from where they had left it, and
completed by unknown hands.
1064 A group of several thousand pilgrims traveled from Germany to the Holy
Land. They were led by four bishops.
1066 Gottschalk (see 1042) slain during an uprising. As a result of the violence,
the bishoprics at Mecklenburg and Oldenburg were vacated, and remained so
until 1149. Bishop John of Mecklenburg, an Irishman under the jurisdiction of
the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, was tortured, then beheaded. His head was
offered on the tip of a spear to the Slavic god Redigast. Monks in Ratzeburg
were stoned to death.
CHURCH HISTORY - 167
1066The Norman Conquest of England. William’s invasion was supported by
Pope Gregory VII, who had quarreled with Harold Godwinson. Harold had
refused to carry out Gregory’s decision that the incumbent archbishop of
Canturbery, whom he felt had not be canonically elected, should be deposed.
However, having become king of England, William decreed that no clergy could
go to Rome, receive a papal legate, or appeal to the papal curia without his
permission. Gregory claimed that the Donation of Constantine required that
William be his vassal, but William refused.
1066 Andrew, the archbishop of Bari, a city in southern Italy, visited
Constantinople. While there, he renounced Christianity, declaring himself a Jew.
He then removed to Egypt.
1071 A Turkish army defeated the Romans (Byzantines) at Manzikert, opening
Asia Minor to invasion. The Roman emperor Alexius Comnenus (1081-1118)
appealed to the papacy for military assistance. The investiture controversy
prevented Gregory from providing the requested support.
1072-76 Adam of Bremen wrote his Deeds of the Bishops of the Church of
Hamburg.
1073 Gregory VII (1073-1085), “Hildebrand,” believing the Forged Decretals to
be authentic, enforced them. Also, in A.D. 1073, at a synod held in Rome, he
pronounced the title of ‘Pope’ the sole and peculiar dignity of the Bishops of
Rome. In his Dictatus Papae, he stated that the Pope had the right to depose
emperors, that the Pope’s authority is the authority of Christ, that the papal
office alone was universal in its authority, that the Pope alone (without a synod)
could depose bishops without giving the accused a hearing, that no one could
condemn an appellant to the apostolic see, that no council was canonical without
papal approval, and that no book or decree was canonical without papal assent.
In addition, he claimed that the Roman church had never erred, not would it
ever, “to all eternity.” The notion that the papacy alone is universal and plenary,
while all other powers in the world are particular and dependent, is called the
“plenitude of power.” In authoring the Dicataus Papea, Gregory employed the
forged decretals of Pseudo-Isidore.
It is important to realize that for about 200 years before this, the power of the
bishop of Rome had been very limited. The great bishoprics and abbeys of
western Europe had flourished with little or no assistance from Rome, and with
no effective papal jurisdiction over their affairs.
Gregory also insisted that the church become uniform in both liturgy and
organization.
1074 A paper mill was set up in eastern Spain in this year, the first paper mill in
Europe.
1077 Henry IV, having lost his power base within the German church due to
Gregory’s threat to excommunicate his supporters, petitioned the Pope for
absolution at Canossa in northern Italy. The Pope was on his way to a council of
German nobles meeting to replace Henry. Through the intervention of Abbot
Hugh of Cluny, Gregory agreed to absolve Henry and let him remain on the
throne.
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1080+ First Benedictine monasteries founded in Denmark.
1080+ When King Inge of Sweden attempted to end pagan worship at Upsalla,
he was deposed. His brother-in-law Sweyn assumed the throne, but Inge retook
the crown by force and imposed the Christian faith. Pope Gregory VII (1073-85)
congratulated Inge on his victory.
1081 Alexius Comnenus, who had recently become Roman (Byzantine) emperor
(1081-1118), confiscated church property to finance a war against the Normans.
In 1082, Alexius promised never again to appropriate church property.
The patriarch Cosmas I (1075-81) had imposed penance on Alexius and his
family for the riot instigated by Alexius’ supporters. Alexius did the prescribed
penance, then deposed Cosmas, replacing him with Eustratios Garidas (108184).
1082John Italos (Italus) was condemned by an Orthodox council in this year.
The following anathemas, directed against his doctrines, were incorporated into
the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see year 842 above).
(11) those who seek to discover exactly how the Word was joined to his human
substance, and how the latter was deified;
(12) those who introduce Greek doctrines of the soul, heaven, earth, and
creation into the Church;
(13) those who teach metemphychosis or the destruction of the soul after death;
(14) those who say that ideas or matter are co-eternal with God, and those who
say that creation is eternal or immutable;
(15) those who honor, or who believe that God will honor, Greek philosophers or
heresiarchs who taught error above the Fathers of the councils who held to the
truth, though these latter may have sinned through passion or ignorance;
(16) those who do not accept the miracles of Christ, the Theotokos, and all his
saints;
(17) those who think Greek philosophy to be true and try to convert the faithful
to their opinions;
(18) those who teach that creation is the necessary result of the participation of
matter in the ideas, and not the result of God's free will;
(19) those who say that it is impossible that we will rise to judgment in these
same bodies;
(20) those who believe in the pre-existence of souls; those who deny that all of
creation is ex nihilo; those who say that hell is temporary or that all of creation
will be restored (including the most wicked); and those who understand the
Kingdom of Heaven to be temporary.
(21) all of John Italos’s doctrines introduced in opposition to the Orthodox faith.
Italos had succeeded Michael Psellus as Consul of the Philosophers. He had been
employed by the emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071-78) in the latter’s efforts to
make peace with the Normans. After his condemnation, Italos was confined in a
monastery.
1084 Nicholas III Grammatikos (1084-1118) patriarch of Constantinople.
CHURCH HISTORY - 169
1085 After some elements in the German church returned to his side, Henry IV
was able to continue the conflict with the papacy. Henry drove Gregory from
Rome. The Pope found refuge with his Norman allies in southern Italy, never to
return to Rome.
1085 Alfonso VI of Castile reconquered Toledo. Though he promised the Muslims
continued use of the city’s main mosque, the archbishop turned it into his
cathedral the next year. Toledo became an important center for the introduction
of ancient Greek and more recent Arabic learning into the West.
1087 Nicetas, metropolitan of Ancyra, had brought an issue to the emperor
Alexius’s attention in 1084 relating to one of Nicetas’s suffragan bishops who had
been raised to metropolitan status by the emperor Constantine X Doukas (105967). Nicetas argued that, according to canon 12 of the council of Chalcedon, a
metropolitan retained authority over a suffragan who had been promoted.
Alexius referred the issue to the patriarch, but the patriach’s synod had been
unable to reach a decision, at least partially due to pressure from the patriarchal
clergy, which preferred that the power to appoint metropolitans reside with the
patriarchate. Alexius then decided the case himself, against Nicetas.
1087 Death of Constantine the African (1020-1087). Constantine had collected
books from Egypt, Persia, Chaldea and India, translated them into Latin, and
placed them in Monte Cassino.
1093 Anselm (1033/4 - 1109) became Archbishop of Canterbury. He is most
famous for his proof of the existence of God. The proof, in short, was that since
we have an idea of an absolutely perfect being, that idea constitutes proof of his
existence, since he would be imperfect if he did not exist.
Anselm also
developed a satisfaction theory of the atonement in his Cur Deus homo? (Why
did God become man?) Based on the feudal system, in which satisfaction for a
crime depended on dignity of the person offended, Anselm argued that offense
against God required an infinite satisfaction. Thus, in Anselm's theory, the death
of the God-man whose infinite merits brought man back into a right relationship
with God.
During Anselm’s tenure, Pope Urban II (1088-99) sanctioned the English churchstate system, in exchange that he, and not the anti-pope Clement III (10801100), be recognized as pope. Urban cut a similar deal with the Normans of
Sicily, effectively giving them control over the church in their domains.
1091 The Normans completed the conquest of Sicily, begun in 1061. During the
ensuing century, the Normans used Sicilian contacts with the Roman (Byzantine)
Empire to collect a number of ancient works in Greek, among them many
writings of Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Euclid.
1093 The Saxons and Danes set up Henry, son of Gottschalk (see 1066), as king
of the Wends. Henry ruled from Old Lubeck, an isolated island of Christianity in
a pagan sea.
1095Pope Urban II announced the First Crusade. No German prince loyal to the
Henry IV took part in this crusade.
CHURCH HISTORY - 170
1096 Approximately 800 Jews of the town of Worms were slaughtered by the
Crusaders. Some were given refuge by the local bishop, whose protection was to
no avail. The only survivors were those who underwent forcible baptism.
1098The Crusaders captured Antioch on 3 June with the assistance of an
Armenian Moslem named Firouz, who betrayed the city.
The Turks were
massacred. Bohemund, a Norman, made himself prince of Antioch. In so doing,
he reneged on the agreement made with Alexius Comnenus to return Antioch to
the Roman (Byzantine) empire.
1098 In reaction to the decadence of their order, Robert of Molesme led a group
of Benedictine monks in the founding of the Cistercian order.
Their first
monastery was in a poor, marshy part of the Burgundian forest known as
Cisteaux. The Cistercians specialized in the development of marginal land, and
soon became very wealthy.
1099The Crusaders took Jerusalem on 14 June, slaughtering the Moslem
inhabitants, and burning the Jews alive inside their synagogue. Godfrey of
Lorraine was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, though he refused the
title “king.” He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin.
1099 Paschal II (1099-1118) became Pope. During his time, paedocommunion
was still practiced in the West. This is clear from the letter Pope Paschal II wrote
to Pontius, the abbot of Cluny: “As Christ communicated bread and wine, each
by itself, and it ever had been so observed in the church, it ever should be so
done in the future, save in the case of infants and of the sick, who as a general
thing, could not eat bread.”
1100 On making the sign of the cross, from the Catholic Encyclopedia: “At this
period the manner of making it in the West seems to have been identical with
that followed at present in the East, i.e. only three fingers were used, and the
hand traveled from the right shoulder to the left. ... Moreover it is at least clear
from many pictures and sculptures that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
the Greek practice of extending only three fingers was adhered to by many Latin
Christians. ... However there can be little doubt that long before the close of the
Middle Ages the large sign of the cross was more commonly made in the West
with the open hand and that the bar of the cross was traced from left to right.”
1100 A Russian bishopric established at Polotsk on the Dvina River.
1100 Between this year and 1152, the Cistercians began over three hundred new
monasteries.
The Twelfth Century
1102 Union of Croatia and Hungary.
CHURCH HISTORY - 171
1103 With new kings and popes in place, the investiture controversy in England
flared up again. King Henry I of England (1100-35) and Paschal II (1099-1118)
were the key players. The Concordat of London in 1107 made peace. By this
agreement, Henry abandoned lay investiture, but maintained authority over
bishops and abbots in his realm. The Concordat of London was a model for the
Concordat of Worms (1122). Paschal was motivated to peace by a desire to
launch a crusade against his fellow Christians in Constantinople.
1104 The Danish town of Lund became an archbishopric.
1106 A bishopric established in Holar in Iceland. A school was founded where a
woman named Ingunn taught Latin and depicted the lives of the saints in
embroidery.
1106/7 Abbot Daniel of Tchernigov, a Russian on pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
observed Latins and Greeks worshipping together. He pointed out happily,
however, that at the ceremony of the Holy Fire the Greek lamps were lit
miraculously while the Latin ones were lit from the Greeks’.
1108 Likely date of the Magdeburg Appeal, a letter to te clergy of Saxony, the
Rhineland, and Flanders asking for military support in a proposed thrust against
the pagan Wends. The effort of crushing the Wends is “an occasion for you to
save your souls and ... to acquire the best land on which to live.” The Wends
lived in the region between the Elbe and Pomerania (Mecklenburg).
1111 Paschal II (1099-1118) concluded a concordat with the German Emperor
Henry V (1106-25) to end the investiture controversy. In return for Henry V’s
agreement not to interfere in church affairs, Paschal would surrender all church
lands and secular offices. Opinion in the church was so strong against him, that
Paschal was forced to withdraw the offer.
1114 The Premonstratensian order formed by a German aristocrat named
Norbert. The order emphasized evangelism.
1117 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) presided
over a synod seated to hear the case of heresy against Eustratios, metropolitan
of Nicea, who had been accused of Nestorianism. The emperor lobbied for
Eustratios, but the synod deadlocked, eleven to eleven. It reconvened in
Alexius’s absence, under the leadership of John Agapetos, patriarch of
Constantinople (1111-34), and Eustratios was condemned. Eustratios had been
a disciple of John Italos, and this condemnation is seen by some as a triumph for
traditionalists within the church, who disparaged the use of reason.
1120 A new pagan temple constructed at Gutzkow. The region east of the Elbe
was enjoying a period of prosperity, attested by strong urban growth.
1120+ The Templars originated in Palestine as a group of knights who took the
monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, whose purpose was to protect
pilgrims as they traveled in the Holy Land between the coast and Jerusalem.
Their name came from the location of their residence in Jerusalem, thought to be
on the site of Solomon’s temple.
CHURCH HISTORY - 172
1121 Peter Abelard’s Theologia condemned at a council held in Soissons for
presenting an erroneous view of the Trinity.
1121 Hosios Nicholas Kataskepenos, a disciple of St. Cyril Philiotes, who had
been dead for 11 years, opened the saint’s tomb. He found the head uncorrupt,
exuding a pleasant odor. Kataskepenos later wrote a Life of Cyril Philiotes. From
Philea in Thrace where he lived in a cell near a church his brother had converted
into a monastery, Cyril, for a period in his life, walked into Constantinople every
Friday evening to view the miraculous unveiling of the icon of the Virgin Mary in
the church of the Blachernai. The emperor Alexius I Comnenus visited Cyril on
two occasions. On the first, the emperor was concerned that the duties of his
office left him little time for prayer, but Cyril assured him that God would not
forget his care for the poor, as shown in the support he had shown to the
Orphanage of St. Paul, his concern for churches and monasteries, and his efforts
to convert barbarians to Christ. On his second visit, Alexius sought counsel on
the appropriate time to initiate a campaign against the Turks. Cyril advised him
to delay, and the emperor did so.
1122 The Concordat of Worms between Henry V (1106-1125) and Pope Calixtus
II (1119-1124) ended the investiture controversy. In this compromise, Henry
abandoned lay investiture and the doctrine of theocratic kingship. But the pope
granted the king the right to veto the appointments of bishops and abbots. As it
turned out, the German monarch had been so weakened by the civil wars that he
was no longer able to control appointments outside of his own territory. The
monarch was severely weakened.
1124-5 Duke Boleslas III of Poland had captured Pomerania (the northern part of
modern Poland) by this year. Afterwards, Vratislav (Warcislaw), a Pomeranian
warlord who, as a youth, had been baptized while held prisoner in Germany,
encouraged the spread of Christianity into the land. He established a bishopric
on Usedom Island, near the mouth of the Oder, and he protected Otto, bishop of
Bamburg, during the latter’s missionary journey in 1124/25. At one point, Duke
Boleslas threatened military action against the citizens of Szczecin if they refused
to convert - they acceded to his demand. Otto is reported to have baptized
22,165 persons in Pomerania. His technique involved offering presents to
encourage conversion - food and clothing for the poor; rings, sword belts,
sandals, and cloth of gold to the wealthy. After Otto departed from Pomerania,
however, apostasy was widespread.
1125 A priest named Arnold appointed bishop for Greenland.
established his see at Gardar.
In 1126 he
1125-1200 During this period a large number of Greek and Arabic works were
translated into Latin and became available to Western scholars.
1127-28 Otto of Bamburg’s second missionary journey to the Pomeranians (see
1124-5). He met with great success.
1127 Vizelin (Vicelinus), a native of Hamelin, set up a base in Faldera (now
Neumeister in Schleswig-Holstein) to evangelize the Wends.
The German
Emperor Lothar (1125-37) and Count Adolf of Holstein supported other
missionary communities of Segeburg and Lubeck.
Adolf also encouraged
Germans to immigrate to Holstein and Wagria.
CHURCH HISTORY - 173
1130 When Nyklot succeeded Henry (see 1093) as leader of the Wends, he stood
as champion of the pagan cause.
1134 King Eric II of Denmark raided Rugen (near Germany’s Baltic coast) and
conquered the fortress of Arkana, center of the cult of the god Svantovit. Eric
forced baptism on the Arkanians. They promptly apostatized when Eric returned
to Denmark.
1136 Anselm, Roman Catholic bishop of Havelburg, visited Constantinople on a
diplomatic mission. While there, he entered into public debate with Nicetas,
metropolitan of Nicomedia. Nicetas made a speech summarizing the East’s view
of papal claims: “We do not deny to the Roman Church the primacy amongst the
five sister patriarchates; and we recognize her right to the most honorable seat
at an ecumenical council. But she has separated herself from us by her own
deeds, when through pride she assumed a monarchy which does not belong to
her office. . . . How shall we accept decrees from her that have been issued
without consulting us and even without our knowledge? If the Roman Pontiff,
seated on the lofty throne of his glory, wishes to thunder at us and, so to speak,
hurl his mandates at us from on high, and if he wishes to judge us and even to
rule us and our churches, not by taking counsel with us but at his own arbitrary
pleasure, what kind of brotherhood, or even what kind of parenthood can this
be? We should be the slaves, not the sons, of such a church, and the Roman see
would not be the pious mother of sons but a hard and imperious mistress of
slaves.”
1140 Gratian produced an unofficial collection of canon law known as the
Decretum. It was a favorite source book in the West for about 100 years.
1140 In a letter to the canons of Lyons, Bernard of Clairvaux condemned the
Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - long commemorated in the
East on December 9 - claiming that her Conception was not holy, though her
Nativity was.
1141 Peter Abelard condemned at the Council of Sens. Though sometimes
portrayed as a skeptic, Abelard’s stated goal in his Sic et Non was to
demonstrate that the apparent contradictions of scripture, discovered through
the use of logic, could be reconciled once the true intent of the texts was
understood.
1143 Between this year 1157, six different men became patriarch of
Constantinople:
Michael Kourkouas (1143-46), Cosmas Atticus (1146-47),
Nicholas Mouzalon (1147-51), Theodotos (1151-53), Constantine Khliarenos
(1154-57), and Luke Chrysoberges (1157-69). Theodotos’s right hand darkened
during his terminal illness. After his death, Soterichos Panteugenos accused
Theodotos of having harbored Bogomil sympathies: Soterichos’s research had
shown that Bogomil corpses always had blackened hands.
When George
Tornikes came to the late patriarch’s defense, Soterichos accused him of Bogomil
leanings as well. See 1157.
1144 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Manuel Comnenus (1143-80) declared
priests exempt from taxation and the performance of duties for the state.
CHURCH HISTORY - 174
1144 At the preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux, the Second Crusade was
launched. The crusade was motivated by the news that the Saracens had
conquered the Christian principality of Edessa.
Bernard was successful in
persuading knights from France and the south of Germany to join the crusade,
but Spain and northern Germany found his message less than convincing. Pope
Eugenius III (1145-53) allowed Alfonso VII of Castille to attack the Muslims in
Spain instead of those in the Middle East. The crusading force that did head east
was obliterated in Asia Minor.
1146 On 13 March, Bernard of Clairvaux attended a Reichstag in Frankfurt where
Saxon nobles asked for authorization to attack the pagan Slavs to the east.
Bernard passed this information along to Pope Eugenius, who authorized the
crusade against the Wends.
1147 The Wendish Crusade. On 13 April, in the bull Divina dispensatione, Pope
Eugenius III (1145-53) gave the Saxons spiritual privileges typical for crusaders
as incentive for warring upon the pagan Wends. The crusade was made
necessary by Count Adolf of Holstein’s annexation of Wendish territory, which he
provided to immigrants from the west of Germany. In support of the crusade,
Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux wrote, “We expressly forbid that for any reason
whatsoever they should make a truce with these people [the Wends] ... until
such time as ... either their religion or their nation be destroyed.” Nyklot’s forces
(see 1130) were opposed by a Danish navy and a Saxon army, the latter under
the command of Bishop Anselm of Havelburg. Nyklot was defeated and some
Wends were baptized.
1147 Germans moving eastward on the Second Crusade plundered the suburbs
of Philippopolis. The metropolitan, Michael Italikos, convinced the German
emperor Conrad II to keep his troops in line. Then the locals murdered some of
the crusaders. Italikos was able to persuade Conrad to spare the city.
1148-51 Peter Lombard wrote his Four Books of Sentences, a systematic
treatment of the teachings of the Bible and the fathers on Christian doctrine. It
remained a standard theological textbook until the 1500s.
1149 The emperor Manuel Comnenus took Corfu back from the Normans.
1149 The bishoprics of Oldenburg and Meckleburg re-established.
1127) was ordained bishop of Oldenburg.
Vizelin (see
1154 Philip of Mahdia was burned to death in Palermo. Philip, raised a Muslim,
had converted to Christianity and served King Roger of Sicily. He was executed
for apostasy when he relapsed to Islam.
1156 When Bishop Gerold of Oldenburg held Epiphany service there, no Slavs
attended the service. Gerold cut down a grove of trees sacred to the Prove, a
Slavic god, as he traveled to Lubeck.
1157 The Synod of Blachernae, held on May 12. In part, this synod condemned
the errors of Basilakes and Soterichos (Soterichus). The following anathemas
from that synod are included in the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see 842 above).
CHURCH HISTORY - 175
(28) those who say that Christ offered his sacrifice to God the Father alone, and
not to himself and to the Holy Spirit;
(30) those who deny that the daily sacrifice of the priests of the Church is to the
Holy Trinity;
(31) those who say that the sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy is only figuratively the
sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; those who deny that the sacrifice in the
Lirtugy is one and the same as that of Christ on the cross;
(33) those who deny that Christ reconciled us to Himself though the entire
mystery of the economy, and so reconciled us to all of the Holy Trinity, but say
instead that we were reconciled to the Son through the incarnation and to the
Father through the passion;
(34) those who misunderstand and twist the teachings of the Church;
(35) those who think the deification of Christ's humanity destroyed his human
nature; and those who deny that his deified human nature is worthy of worship;
and those who say that, since the human nature of Christ was swallowed up into
Divinity, his passion was an illusion;
(36) those who reject the doctrines of Athanasius, Cyril, Ambrose, Amphilochius,
and Leo of Old Rome, and who do not accept the teachings of the Ecumenical
councils, in particular, the fourth and sixth councils;
(37) those who say that characteristics of Christ's human nature - such as
creaturehood, circumscription, mortality, and blameless passions - exist only
hypothetically, when one considers Christ's human nature in abstraction, and not
really and truly;
The emperor Manuel Comnenus called the council to settle a dispute over the
words in the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, “Thou art he who offers and is
offered and receives.” Basil, the deacon who held the chair of the gospels,
interpreted this to mean that the Son is both the victim and the recipient of the
sacrifice. Soterichos Panteugenos attacked Basil’s position in a Platonic dialogue,
but George Tornikes, metropolitan of Ephesus, came to Basil’s defense. A synod
(26 Jan 1156) had settled the matter in Basil’s favor, but Soterichos Panteugenos
and Nichephorus Basilakes had not been present and refused to accept the
synod’s decision.
After the synod of Blachernae, Nichephorus Basilakes and Soterichos
(Soterichus), deacons of the Great Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople,
recanted. George Tornikes wrote a tract against the methods of Basilakes and
Soterichos, accusing them of playing intellectual games with the doctrines of the
church.
1160 Bern, bishop of Mecklenburg, converted Pribislav, the son of Nyklot and
ruler of the Wends. Prabislav cut a deal with Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony,
agreeing to accept Henry’s overlordship in exchange for a principality of
Mecklenburg. However, no plans were made to form and instruct a native
Wendish clergy.
1160 Gerold, Vizelin’s successor as bishop of Oldenburg (see 1149, 1156),
moved his see to Lubeck.
The cathedral chapter at Lubeck adopted the
Augustinian rule at this time.
CHURCH HISTORY - 176
1161Thomas Becket, a companion of King Henry II (1154-89) of England,
became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Gervase of Canterbury attributes the
celebration of Trinity Sunday (the Sunday one week after Pentecost
(Whitsunday)) to Thomas, although there is evidence that it actually began in
the Low Countries in the tenth century. The Roman Church added Trinity Sunday
to their calendar during the pontificate of John XXII in the fourteenth century.
The Eastern Church has no Trinity Sunday, referring to the day instead as All
Holy Martyrs.
1161 Edward the Confessor was canonized. At this time, permission from the
bishop of Rome began to be required before changes to the English church’s
calendar were authorized (see 747).
1161 When the Seljuq sultan Kilidj Arslan visited Constantinople in this year, his
planned trip to St. Sophia was blocked by the patriarch Luke Chrysoberges
(1157-69/70), who would not permit an infidel to set foot within the Great
Church.
At some point during Luke Chrysoberges’ patriarchate, the question was raised
whether Muslims who had been baptized by Orthodox priests at their parents’
request needed do anything further to convert to Orthodoxy. A synod decided
that such baptism was insufficient, even when the Muslim’s mother had been
Orthodox. Instead, the prospective convert was required to curse Mohammed
and his god, as had been customary. One of the Seljuq sultan’s viziers, Iktiyar
ad-Din Hasan ibn Gabras, a convert to Islam and member of the Byzantine
Gabras family, urged the emperor to remove the curse as a requirement, since it
had prevented his conversion back to Christianity. In the hope that others in the
sultan’s court might convert, Manuel urged that the requirement to anathematize
Mohammed and his god be dropped. The issue was discussed in a synod, and as
a compromise, the anathema was modified to apply only to Mohammed and his
teachings.
1164 Pole Alexander III (1159-81) made Uppsala a bishopric.
1166 A council met under the presidency of the emperor Manuel Comnenus to
address the interpretation of John 14.28:
“My father is greater than I.”
Demetrius of Lampe, a Roman (Byzantine) diplomat recently returned from the
West, raised the issue to the emperor’s attention. Demetrius ridiculed the way
the verse was interpreted there: Christ was inferior to his father in his humanity,
but equal in his divinity. The emperor thought the Western interpretation made
good sense. Eventually, he called a council to settle the matter. The council met
on March 2. The following anathemas were directed against Constantine the
Bulgarian, formerly Metropolitan of Corfu, and John Irenicus, by a synod in 1166.
They are included in the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see year 842).
(38) Constantine the Bulgarian, who says that “My father is greater than I” refers
only to Christ's human nature, taken in abstraction; whereas the Fathers use
such an abstraction only to explain statements implying servitude or ignorance,
and explain the statement "My father is greater than I" in various ways, one of
which is that the statement refers to the fact that Christ's human nature retained
its properties in the hypostatic union;
(39) those who agree with Constantine of Bulgaria;
(40) John Irenicus, who held the same view.
CHURCH HISTORY - 177
At the emperor’s insistence, the council agreed that, “By Christ was to be
understood his created and concrete nature, according to which he suffered, as
others.” In the form of an edict (an Ekthesis) he proclaimed severe punishment
for those who refused to accept this formula: bishops and officials would lose
their posts, while lower orders of the clergy could expect exile. The Ekthesis was
carved in stone and erected in the narthex of St. Sophia. Metropolitans were
required to have their suffragans sign a copy of the Ekthesis.
1168 King Valdemar I of Denmark conquered Rugen (see 1134). The temple of
Svantovit was destroyed. Svantovit himself (or his image) was used as firewood.
The inhabitants of Rugen again accepted Christiantiy. Twelve churches existed
on the island by 1172.
1169-1187 A period of persecution for Coptic Christians. Fearing they might
support the Frankish crusaders, the Ayyubid rulers forbade Copts from holding
office or riding horses, banned bells, crosses, and religious processions, and had
church walls painted black. These restrictions were generally relaxed after the
defeat of the crusaders.
1171Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights.
1171 Pope Alexander III issued the bull Non parum animus noster, equating war
against the Estonians and the Finns with pilgrimage to the Holy Land: “We
therefore grant to those who fight with might and courage against the aforesaid
pagans one year’s remission for the sins they confess and receive penance for,
trusting in God’s mercy and the merits of the apostles Peter and Paul, just as we
usually grant to those who visit the sepulcher of the Lord; and if those who
perish in the fight are doing their penance, to them we grant remission of all
their sins.”
1173 Death of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, patron saint of Belarus. Euphrosyne was
the daughter of Prince Vseslav of Polotsk. She entered a convent rather than
accept marriage. Noted for her generosity (she used most of her incoming for
almsgiving), Euphrosyne copied books for income. Toward the end of her life,
she traveled to Constantinople and the Holy Land.
1176 The Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Manuel Comnenus (1143-80) defeated by
the Turks at Myriocephalon in Anatolia.
1176 The Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, Leontius, was imprisoned by the
Franks when he slipped into Jerusalem to visit his see.
1177 Joachim of Fiore (1130/35-1201/02) became abbot of the Cistercian
Monastery in Corazzo, Sicily, shortly before developing a Trinitarian philosophy of
history. The Old Testament era corresponded to the time of the Father, and the
period since the incarnation was the era of the Son. The third era, that of the
Spirit, was to have been won through the efforts of the Church, especially of
hermits and monastics, and to have begun in 1260. The Franciscan and
Dominican orders were later seen as fulfilling this need for spiritual workers.
Joachim was a mystic, having experienced three moments of intense spiritual
illumination.
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1180 An Augustinian canon, Meinhard, set up a mission station at Uxkull
(Ikskile), inland on the Dvina (Daugava) River (modern Latvia). His fort there
was built of stone for protection against Lithuanian slavers.
1182Many Latin-speaking residents of Constantinople were massacred by the
Roman (Byzantine) populace during a riot. Many of these were Venetians.
1185 In August, the Normans laid siege to and sacked Thessalonica.
A
description of the Norman atrocities survives, written by Eustathius, metropolitan
of the city. Eustathius also complained that the Norman conquerors were
contemptuous of Greek church services, and that the local Jews and Armenians
profited from the sacking of the city and rejoiced that a disaster had fallen upon
the Greeks.
1186 Death of St. John of Novgorod. He had been archbishop of Novgorod
during a siege. As he prayed one day, John had a vision of the Theotokos, who
told him to go to the Church of Christ the Savior and take her icon from there,
then carry it along the walls of the city. She promised him he would then see
the city rescued. As John carried the icon in procession to the city walls, tears
began to stream from the Virgin Mary’s eyes, and the enemy fell into complete
confusion and fled.
1187 Death of Gerard of Cremona, who had translated over 70 ancient Greek
works into Latin from the Arabic.
1187 The Fatamid (Turkish) vizier Yusuf Ibn Eyub, known by his title of Sala edDin, or Saladin, swept into Palestine, defeating the crusader King Guy at the
battle of Tiberias in June, and conquering Jerusalem in October. In addition to
dealing the death blow to the Latin kingdom in Palestine, Saladin conquered
Egypt, thereby insuring that Islam in the west was Sunni – though in Persia it
remains Shiah to this day.
1190 The third crusade set off under the leadership of Richard the Lionhearted of
England (1189-1199), Philip Augustus of France (1180-1223), and Frederick
Barbarosa of Germany (1152-1190). The crusaders succeeded in capturing
Cyprus and Acre in 1191. On his return home, Richard was captured by Leopold
of Austria and held captive by Henry VI.
~1190 The Teutonic Order of Jerusalem (the Teutonic Knights) formed largely
from German knights of the third crusade. Their goal was to defend the
Christian presence in the Holy Land.
1195 Some time after this year, Balsamon, patriarch of Antioch, died. Balsamon
attended his flock with difficulty, given the presence of crusader forces and a
Latin patriarch in that city. He was a noted canonist, promoting the harmony of
ecclesial and imperial law/jurisdiction, and a champion of the rights and authority
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
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1198 The Livonian Crusade. When Meinhard’s (see 1180) successor Berthold
found the mission along the Dvina in danger of failure, Pole Celestine III (119198) encouraged a crusade. A Saxon army invaded Livonia (~modern Latvia and
Estonia) and defeated the Livonians in battle. Berthold was slain. When the
Saxons returned home, the priests at the Livonian mission fled under death
threats from the Livonians. (The unreliability of occasional crusaders to protect
missionaries later led to the formation of military/spiritual brotherhoods - see
1202.)
1198 During Innocent III’s pontificate (1198-1216), the papacy exercised
increased direct control over the church, both through written instructions and
the presence of legates. Elements of the modern Western system of liturgical
colors can be found in a treatise by Innocent III, written before he became pope
in this year.
1200 Albert of Buxtehunde led a crusading army into Livonia. In 1201, he
abandoned the mission station at Uxkull (see 1180) and established his base at
the mouth of the Dvina River. The city of Riga grew from this beginning.
1200 When John “the Fat” Comnenus broke into St. Sophia in Constantinope and
had himself proclaimed emperor, the patriarch John Kamateros (1199-1206) hid
in a broom closet. The emperor Alexius III Angelus (1195-1203) squelched John
Comnenus’s coup.
It was common in this era in Constantinople to find scholars in discussion in the
forecourt of the Church of the Holy Apostles on such topics as conception, the
nature of sight, number theory, and the workings of sensation.
1200 A synod met in Constantinople to discuss the eucharist as a result of a
controversy between which began in 1197 between John Kamateros and the
historian Nicetas Choniates. The resulting synod condemned the teachings of
Myron Sikidites (aka Michael Glykas).
Glykas had argued that, since the
communion bread was broken by the priest, it could not be corruptible. He also
concluded that, since Christ’s body had been transformed after his sacrifice on
the cross, so also the communion elements were miraculously transformed only
after they had been sacrificed, that is, after they were consumed. However, as
the synod’s decision was being read to the emperor for confirmation, John
Kastamonites, bishop of Chalcedon and an enthusiastic supporter of Sikidites’
views, entered uninvited and argued persuasively against it. Sikidites was not
censured.
1200 The beginning of the ‘Little Ice Age’ in Western Europe, which lasted for
approximately 200 years.
The Thirteenth Century
1201 During this century, the Liturgies of St. James and St. Mark of Alexandria
were suppressed by “Patriarch” Theodore IV (Balsamon), a Greek bishop living in
Constantinople.
By the time this century began, the number of Orthodox Christians in Egypt had
been reduced to approximately 100,000.
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1202 Bishop Albert of Riga (in modern Latvia) formed a military/religious order,
the Brothers of the Knighthood of Christ of Livonia, to provide a permanent
military presence, in contrast to the seasonal or occasional crusading knights.
They were commonly known as the Sword Brothers. Unlike the Templars who
reported directly to the pope, the Sword Brothers were subject to Albert. He
meant to use them to subject the Livonians by force, in order to bring them to
Christ.
1204 The Fourth Crusade resulted in the sack of Constantinople. Although not
originally directed at Constantinople, the Venetians insisted on this new target.
The city was pillaged, churches were desecrated, nuns were raped. The city
remained under Western control until 1261. (Though originally aimed toward
Egypt and Palestine, the Venetians directed the crusade initially against Zara, a
city of Dalmatia on the Adriatic coast. When it was taken, Pope Innocent III
(1198-1216) excommunicated the crusaders, both Venetians and Franks, but the
excommunication of the Franks was lifted after they appealed for absolution.
While they were at Zara, the crusaders formed a pact with Alexius Angelus, son
of the deposed emperor Isaac, to attack Constantinople and restore Isaac (118595) to the throne. On his part, Alexius agreed to pay the crusaders a large sum
of money and to subordinate the Orthodox Church to Rome. Innocent III issued
an instruction that no further attacks (beyond those already perpetrated at Zara)
were to be allowed against Christians unless they hindered the crusade. The
failure on Innocent III's part to act more firmly and forcefully to prevent the sack
of Constantinople was seen in the East as evidence of complicity. The Novgorod
Chronicle states that the pope favored the plan to attack Constantinople, and the
Chronica Regia Coloniensis indicates that he lifted the Franks’ excommunication
for sacking Zara only after their intent to attack Constantinople became clear.
(See Steven Runciman’s A History of the Crusades, Vol. 3, The Kingdom of Acre
and the Later Crusades, Cambridge, 1979, especially pages 116-117.))
1205 Innocent III (1198-1216), bishop of Rome, appointed Stephen Langton
Archbishop of Canterbury. King John (1199-1216) refused to allow him to enter
England. Langton divided the Bible books into chapters.
1206 Innocent III reprimanded the clergy of the cathedral of Barcelona for their
withholding of baptism from slaves who wished to convert to Christianity.
1206 A native Livonian priest, John, martyred at his mission station between
Rigan and Uxkull (modern Latvia).
1207 The Brothers of the Knighthood of Christ of Livonia against the Prussians
formed by Bishop Christian, a Cistercian. They made their base at Dobrin
(Dobrzyn), inland along the Vistula (modern Poland), and were known as the
Knights of Dobrin.
1208 Innocent III placed England under interdict over the Langton affair.
1208 Albigensian crusade began.
1208 Francis of Assisi heard the gospel reading for the feast of St. Matthias (Feb
24), Matthew 10.9-11. Thereafter, though a layman, he began to preach and
attract disciples.
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1209 Twelve Franciscan friars traveled to Rome.
approval to their rule.
Pope Innocent III gave oral
1209 Pope Innocent III approved the establishment of a bishopric for southern
Finland. It was eventually located at Turku (Abo).
1211 Genghis Khan invaded China.
1212 The childrens’ crusade.
1212 King John resigned his kingship and received it back as a holding from the
Roman legate. The interdict against England was consequently ended.
1213 The ruler of Epiros (Epirus), Michael Angelus (1204-15) called a synod to
fill the vacant sees of Dyrrakhion and Larissa, both of which had escaped
conquest by the crusaders and were under Michael’s control. John Apokaukos,
metropolitan of Naupaktos, presided.
1213 Catholic crusaders defeated the Cathari at Muret. The Cathari, numerous
in the Languedoc region of France, were dualists, believing that Yahweh (the
ruler of spirit) and Lucifer (of matter) were co-equal. In their view, the
incarnation was an illusion, since matter is evil. The Cathars had two levels of
perfection: for the perfecti, eating of flesh (or eggs) was forbidden, as was
sexual intercourse. For the credentes, sexual immorality was permitted (or so
their Catholic opponents claimed).
1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta.
1215 The Fourth Lateran Council was held in Rome, under Innocent III.
Transubstantiation was defined and the later doctrine of Unum Sanctum was
foreshadowed. On the sacraments:
“One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is
saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and
blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread
and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of
transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the
mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself
received from ours. And surely no one can accomplish this sacrament except a
priest who has been rightly ordained according to the keys of the Church which
Jesus Christ Himself conceded to the Apostles and to their successors. But the
sacrament of baptism (which at the invocation of God and the indivisible Trinity,
namely, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is solemnized in
water) rightly conferred by anyone in the form of the Church is useful unto
salvation for little ones and for adults. And if, after the reception of baptism
anyone shall have lapsed into sin, through true penance he can always be
restored. Moreover, not only virgins and the continent but also married persons
pleasing to God through right faith and good work merit to arrive at a blessed
eternity.”
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This council marked the end of paedocommunion in the West. Infants had been
communicated by wine alone or bread dipped in wine. Since wine was no longer
provided to the laity, this became impossible. The change in practice was
bolstered by the argument then made that communion must be preceded by
confession.
1216St. Dominic secured the pope’s approval for a new religious order. By 1221
Dominicans had entered England.
1218 The fifth crusade. The crusaders took Damietta on the Nile delta. The
sultan of Egypt offered the crusaders Jerusalem in exchange for Damietta, but
his offer was refused. In the end, the crusaders were forced to surrender the
city.
1219St. Sava (d. 1235) consecrated Archbishop of Serbia, giving the Serbian
church a measure of independence.
1219 Franciscans went as missionaries to Morocco in this year and again in 1227.
They died as martyrs.
1219 King Valdemar II of Denmark and Archbishop Andrew of Lund led a crusade
into Estonia. They founded a town, Tallinn, with a bishopric, then imported
German settlers and Dominican friars.
1220 An Englishman named Thomas became bishop of Turku (see 1209). From
there he actively evangelized the Finns.
1220+ As activity in the Holy Land dwindled, the Teutonic Knights (see 1190)
became increasingly involved in Hungary and the Baltic region. They subdued
the region between the Vistula and Niemen Rivers (western Poland, southern
Lithuania). Bishoprics were established along the Vistula at Chelmno (Kulm) in
1232 and Marienwerder in 1243; and farther east at Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) in
1255.
1222 John Apokaukos, metropolitan of Naupaktos in Epiros, responded to
criticism he had received from the patriarch of Constantinople in exile.
Apokaukos had been involved in the ordination of bishops in Epiros who had
been promoted without the patriarch’s permission (see 1213).
While
acknowledging the patriarch’s authority, Apokaukos argued that the church in
Epiros should be autonomous, and that the patriarch should welcome Theodore
Angelus’s efforts to preserve the Orthodox Church in the West.
1222St. Germanicus the New (1222-1240), Ecumenical Patriarch (in exile, in
Nicaea), reportedly wrote the Synodicon of the Holy Spirit. This synodicon was
patterned on the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see 843 above) and traditionally was
read on the Second Day of Pentecost, the Monday of the Holy Spirit. It
anathematizes:
(1) those who amend or distort the Symbol of Faith of the First and Second
Ecumenical Councils;
(2) those who agree that the Son's relationship to the Father is unmediated but
say that the Spirit is distant and mediated;
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(3) those who say that the Spirit proceeds from the Son just as the Son proceeds
from the Father;
(4) those who say that the Father, Son, and Spirit differ in glory and dignity, the
Spirit being third in dignity;
(5) those who introduce ordinal ranks of "first," "second," and "third" into the
Godhead;
(6) those who misconstrue the words of Maximus Confessor (580-662) and the
Ecumenical Patriarch Tarasius (784-806) - that the Spirit proceeds from the
Fatheer through the Son - to imply that the Spirit proceeds from the Son;
(7) those who introduce three essences into the Godhead by claiming that the
Father's essence is to be unbegotten, the Son's to be begotten, and the Spirit's
to proceed;
(8) those who say that the cause of the essence of the Spirit is the essence of
the Father and the Son;
(9) those who say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son as from a
single principle, and so alienate the Spirit from the Godhead;
(10) those who do not understand that procession is the mode of existence of
the Spirit as being begotten is the Son's mode of existence, and who interpret
procession as "to pour forth," and so say that the Spirit proceeds from the Son;
(11) those who conclude from the fact that the Scripture speaks of the "Spirit of
His Son" that the Spirit proceeds from the Son, and who thus demonstrate that
they confuse "belonging to" with "having existence from;"
(12) those who argue that the cause of the Spirit can be called "one" even if both
the Son and the Father are cause on the grounds that Scripture refers everything
the Son has to the Father;
(13) those who interpret St. John of Damascus' statement that "the Spirit is not
from the Son" to mean that the Spirit is not from the Son as first cause, but that
He is from the Son as an immediate cause - and who thus ignore the second part
of the Damascene's statement: "nor do we say that the Son is from the Spirit;"
(14) those who say that, since the Holy Spirit is the image of the Son, the Spirit
must be caused by the Son;
(15) those who in misunderstanding St. Gregory of Nyssa's statement that the
Son is regarded as being caused before the Spirit only in abstraction, and say
that the Son is the cause of the Spirit's hypostasis;
(16) those who say that the Holy Spirit is a creature;
(17) those who take the words "He shall receive of mine" to imply that the Spirit
receives his existence from the Son - and who thus make the Spirit subject to
time, since at the time of speaking this "reception" was in the future;
(18) those who say that the Son, in breathing on his disciples, was giving them
the actual hypostasis of the Holy Spirit, and not spiritual gifts;
(19) those who insult the Holy Spirit by considering Him a distribution and
communication of gifts and communicable to the faithful;
(20) those who misinterpret St. Athanasius' statement that the Son became
greater than the Spirit to imply that the Son caused the Spirit, and fail to see
that St. Athanasius was referring to the grace apportioned (presumably, through
the Spirit);
(21) those who say that the Holy Spirit shares none of the natural properties of
the Father and Son, and thus is of a different nature;
(22) those who corrupt and twist the writings of the Fathers;
(23) those who accept false quotations from the Fathers and read them to the
faithful to convince them that the Spirit proceeds from the Son;
(24) those who attack the Fathers and dogmatize contrary to Photius and other
champions of the Orthodox faith;
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(25) those who offer azymes in the eucharist, for to do so is to immitate
Apollinarius and to deny that Christ was perfect man and to insult the
Incarnation;
(26) those who try to search out the meanings of "procession" and "begetting;"
(27) those who despise the Ecumenical Councils and say that they their
definitions are imperfect and that they left most things mysterious and vague;
(28) those who hold the canons of the Fathers in contempt;
(29) all innovations, past or future, outside the teaching of tradition and the
Fathers.
A condemnation of the teachings of the Uniate “Patriarch” John Beccus (1275-82)
was later appended. The condemnation addresses Beccus' arguments in favor of
the filioque.
1222 An English deacon was burned at the stake for apostatizing to Judaism.
1224 First Order Franciscans reached England.
1224 In the autumn, Theodore Angelus, ruler of Epiros (Epirus), captured
Thessalonic from the Latins. Theodore now claimed to be emperor (in rivalry to
the emperor John III Ducas Vetatzes (1222-54) in exile in Nicea), and was
coronated in Thessalonica in 1226/27.
1227 The Sword Brothers (see 1202) conquered Osel Island at the mouth of the
Gulf of Riga. The natives were baptized. See 1260.
1227 Pope Gregory IX (1227-41) excommunicated the German emperor
Frederick II for failing to fulfill his vow to go on crusade. This was a political
move, to prevent Frederick from subduing opposition in Lombardy. As Frederick
was also king of Sicily, consolidation of his power in northern Italy also would
have endangered the papacy’s political independence.
1229 Without actually engaging in combat, Frederick II succeeded in returning
Jerusalem to Christian control. The Ayoubite sultan of Egypt, Al-Kamil, gave
Frederick Jerusalem and a land corridor to Jaffa in exchange for peace. This
allowed Al-Kamil to concentrate on the threat from An-Nasr, the sultan of
Damascus, his nephew. Ten years later, Jerusalem again fell to the Saracens.
1229 Abu Sa’id, who had been governor of Valencia, converted to Christianity.
Abu took the Christian name of Vincent. He financed the re-establishment of the
see of Seville.
1230 The Spanish Dominican Ramon de Penafort produced a collection of canon
law. His work was sponsored by Pope Gregory IX (1227-41).
1231 Pope Gregory IX instituted the Papal Inquisition for the apprehension and
trial of heretics. The Cathari and Waldenses were in view.
1233 Frederick II of Germany (reigned 1215-50) tranferred 20,000 Muslim
inhabitants of Sicily to Italy in the wake of a Muslim revolt on the island.
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1236 The Sword Brothers (see 1202) were extinguished as a separate military
order after their decisive defeat by the Lithuanians. Their remnants were
absorbed by the Teutonic Knights (see 1190).
1237 Mongols devastated Kievan Russia. Kiev itself was sacked.
1239 Jerusalem again taken by the Saracens. (See 1229.)
1240Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod (died 1267), defeated the Swedes in
battle. Faced with Western aggressors on one front and the Tartars (Mongols)
on another, Nevsky decided to pay tribute to the Tartars. He did this because
thelatter did not interfere with the Orthodox Church, while the Westerners,
particularly the Teutonic Knights, like the crusaders in Constantinople, were
determined to destroy Orthodoxy.
Nevsky is reported to have replied to
messengers from the pope with the words: “Our doctrines are those preached
by the Apostles ... The tradition of the Holy Fathers of the seven ecumenical
councils we scrupulously keep. As for your words, we do not listen to them and
we do not want your doctrine.”
1240 Robert Grosseteste translated the works of the Pseudo-Dionysius into Latin
and produced a commentary on them.
1240 Pope Gregory IX required the Archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops of
Lincoln and Salisbury to provide for 300 Romans. No English clergyman could be
given a parish until the Roman clergy were seen to. This practice was common
in France as well. Absentee Italians profited from the benefices so gained,
paying local priests to fulfill their duties. This arrangement was deeply resented
by the native clergy.
1241The Mongols under Batu invaded Europe, penetrating as far as Silesia and
Hungary. Russia and Poland were devastated. The Germans and Bohemians
checked the Mongols at the battles of Leignitz and Olmutz respectively. Upon
hearing of the death of Ogdai, the Great Khan, Batu withdrew, keeping southern
Russia in subjugation.
1242Nevsky defeated the Teutonic Knights.
1244 A Mongol raiding party descended on Jerusalem and massacred Moslems
and Christians alike. They also destroyed a force of crusaders in Gaza the
following year.
1245 At a council in Lyons, Pope Innocent IV (1243-54) deposed the German
emperor, Frederick II.
1246 Robert of Torote, bishop of Liege, ordered that a feast of Corpus Christi be
celebrated. After a former archdeacon at Liege, Jacques Pantaleon, became
Pope Urban IV (1261-64), it was celebrated throughout the West (1264).
1248 Louis IX of France launched a crusade. He attacked Egypt in the spring of
1249 and took Damietta that summer. His forces marched up the Nile, were cut
off, and Louis himself was captured. His wife, Queen Margaret, rallied the
defenses at Damietta, then ransomed Louis.
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Louis sent an envoy, William of Rubroek, to a debate hosted by the Mongols at
Karakorum. Nestorians, Buddhists, and Moslems were also represented. Louis
remained in the East until 1254.
1248 Ferdinand III forced all Muslim inhabitants of Seville out of that city after
his forces captured it.
1250 Thomas Aquinas (1225-72), author of the Summa Theologica, flourished.
In contrast to Aquinas’s integration of Aristotle within his theological system,
Aquinas’s contemporary, Bonaventure (1221-74), reasserted the PlatonicAugustinian system against the Aristotelian. That is, in Bonaventure, universals
are real, and it is they which individuate matter, and not the matter itself.
Bonaventure placed will (and love) above intellect. Both notions are antithetical
to Thomism. Bonaventure was a Franciscan, while Thomas was a Dominican.
1251 Grand Duke Mindaugas (1219-63) of Lithuania accepted Christianity from
Pope Innocent IV (1243-54) in this year. It was a strategic move to divide his
enemies - the Teutonic Knights and the Russians of Galacia-Volynia. Mindaugas
went so far as to build a cathedral in Vilnius. But he apostatized in 1261, razed
the cathedral, and replaced it with a pagan temple.
1252 Pope Innocent IV (1243-54) authorized the use of torture to obtain
confessions and the names of other heretics.
1253 Gerald of Borgo published his Introduction to the Everlasting Gospel. His
analysis of the contemporary situation showed that the signs Joachim of Flore
(see 1177) had predicted were present, indicating that the new age would begin
in 1260.
1254 A few weeks before his death, Innocent IV, bishop of Rome, sent a letter to
Cardinal Eudes of Chateauroux, the legate to the Orthodox on Cyprus. In the
letter, the pope asked the Orthodox to accept this definition of purgatory:
“Since the Truth asserts in the Gospel that, if anyone blasphemes against the
Holy Spirit, this sin will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next: by
which we are given to understand that certain faults are pardoned in the present
time, and others in the other life; since the Apostle also declares that the work of
each man, whatever it may be, shall be tried by fire and that if it burns the
worker will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as by fire; since the
Greeks themselves, it is said, believe and profess truly and without hesitation
that the souls of those who die after receiving penance but without having had
the time to complete it, or who die without mortal sin but guilty of venial (sins)
or minor faults, are purged after death and may be helped by the suffrages of
the Church; we, considering that the Greeks assert that they cannot find in the
works of their doctors any certain and proper name to designate the place of this
purgation, and that, moreover, according to the traditions and authority of the
Holy Fathers, this name is purgatory, we wish that in the future this expression
be also accepted by them. For, in this temporary fire, sins, not of course crimes
or capital errors, which could not previously have been forgiven through
penance, but slight or minor sins, are purged; if they have not been forgiven
through existence, they weigh down the soul after death.”
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1260 The advance of the Mongol empire toward Egypt was checked by the
Mamelukes at the battle of Ain Gelat. Mameluke rule extended from Egypt
through Syria.
1260 The Teutonic Knights suffered defeat in the battle of Durbe, where 150
knights were slain.
The inhabitants of Osel apostatized (see 1227), then
slaughtered the Christians in their territory.
1261 The Romans (Byzantines) under Michael VIII Palaeologus conquered
Constantinople, taking it back from the crusaders.
1265 Arsenios Autoreianos, patriarch of Constantinople, deposed by the emperor
Michael VIII and sent in exile to Prokonessos in Propontis.
Arsenios had
excommunicated Michael for having the legitimate heir, John IV Laskaris,
blinded. Arsenios’ removal from office was the beginning of the Arsenite Schism,
which did not end until 1310, sixteen years after his death.
1266 Alfonso X of Castile constructed a wall between the Christian and Muslim
quarters of Murcia, a city in southeastern Spain.
1268 Charles of Anjou, with papal blessing, planned an expedition to capture
Constantinople. This expedition was delayed in part due to the efforts of Pope
Gregory X (1271-76) to reconcile with the Orthodox.
1270 The bishop of Paris condemned thirteen propositions found in or derived
from the writings of Aristotle, among them: that God knows nothing of our
world, and that the world itself is eternal. The condemnation was directed
largely at philosophers in the University of Paris.
1271 The Roman populace tore the roof off the palace where a conclave was
meeting to elect a new pope. The cardinals had been taking too long to make a
decision. From this time, the cardinals’ food was decreased daily to hasten the
papal election.
1274 First attempt at reconciliation between East and West.
The Roman
(Byzantine) Emperor Michael VIII (1259-82), being hard-pressed militarily by
Charles of Anjou, monarch of Sicily, needed the protection of the papacy. At the
council of Lyons, the Orthodox representatives agreed to papal claims to
supremacy and the addition of the filioque to the creed. The reunion was
subsequently rejected by the overwhelming majority of Orthodox clergy and
laity, and was repudiated by Michael’s successor. Of the agreement, Michael’s
sister said, “Better my brother’s empire should perish than the purity of the
Orthodox faith.”
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A letter on the subject of purgatory, written by Pope Clement IV (1265-68) in
1267, was incorporated, with slight changes, into the council’s decree Cum
sacrosancta: “However, owing to various errors that have been introduced by
the ignorance of some and the malice of others, (the Roman Church) states and
proclaims that those who fall into sin after baptism must not be rebaptized, but
that through a genuine penitence they obtain pardon for their sins. That if, truly
penitent, they die in charity before having, by worthy fruits of penance, rendered
satisfaction for what they have done by commission or omission, their souls, as
brother John has explained to us, are purged after their death, by purgatorial or
purificatory penalties, and that, for the alleviation of these penalties, they are
served by the suffrages of the living faithful, to wit, the sacrifice of the mass,
prayers, alms, and other works of piety that the faithful customarily offer on
behalf of others of the faithful according to the institutions of the Church. The
souls of those who, after receiving baptism, have contracted absolutely no taint
of sin, as well as those who, after contracting the taint of sin, have been purified
either while they remained in their bodies or after being stripped of their bodies
are, as was stated above, immediately received into heaven.” This appears to
have been the first dogmatic definition of purgatory by the Roman Catholic
church.
At the council, Gregory X called for new crusade. However, Charles of Anjou and
Philip III of France blocked it.
1275 The Emperor Michael Paleologus VIII appointed John Becus (1275-82)
Ecumenical Patriarch to establish the union of the Council of Lyons. Becus’
doctrines were anathematized in the Synodicon of the Holy Spirit (see 1222
above).
1277 Pope John XXI ordered Etienne Tempier, bishop of Paris, to investigate the
tension between philosophy and theology in the University of Paris. Tempier
ended by condemning 219 propositions, including the 13 that had already been
condemned in 1270. Other condemned propositions include: species (such as
humans) had no beginning, but are eternal; nothing happens by chance; God
cannot produce anything new; and God cannot make an accident exist without a
subject (important for its implications for transubstantiation).
1279 The Tartar Khan Mangu-Temir granted the Orthodox Church exemption
from taxes and declared Church lands off limits to Tartars.
1280 First reference to the spinning wheel in Europe, at Speyer on the Rhine.
A provincial council meeting in Cologne set the minimum age for confirmation to
seven. In contrast, before this century, the church in the West had been
concerned with setting the greatest allowable separation in time between
baptism and confirmation.
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1282 Sanctioned by Pope Martin IV (1281-85), Charles of Anjou assembled a
force at Messina with the goal, “the restoration of the Roman empire usurped by
Paleologus.”
In essence, this was a crusade intended for the capture of
Constantinople, claimed by Charles of Anjou as part of his inheritance. The
Roman Emperor Michael Paleologus maneuvered to upset Charles’ expedition by
fomenting civil unrest in Sicily. The Sicilians rebelled against Charles, massacred
a number of Frenchmen during Easter of this year, and offered the throne of
Sicily to King Peter of Aragon.
1283 Pope Martin IV blessed a crusade against Peter of Aragon for siding with
the Sicilians against Charles of Anjou.
1283Gregory of Cyprus (1283-89) became patriarch of Constantinople. He
disagreed with the union of the council of Lyons, though he was sympathetic to
the idea of reunion. Gregory presided over the council of Blakhernae, where the
Roman (Byzantine) “latinophrones” were condemned. Theologically, he spoke of
the “eternal manifestation” of the Spirit by the Son.
1285 A Tome published by the Council of 1285 clarified the Orthodox doctrine of
the procession of the Spirit in this way: “It is recognized that the very Paraklete
shines and manifests Itself eternally by the intermediary of the Son, as light
shines from the sun by the intermediary of rays ...; but that does not mean that
It comes into being through the Son or from the Son.” In an officially sanctioned
commentary on the Tome, a monk named Mark gave a more general meaning to
the term ekporeusis, which was used specifically to designate the mode of origin
of the Spirit. It was felt that the terminological change would cause confusion in
the doctrine of the Trinity. Since the commentary was written under the
patriarch Gregory of Cyprus’ authority, he was criticized by other orthodox
bishops.
John Chilas of Ephesus, Daniel of Cyzicus and Theoleptus of
Philadelphia ceased mentioning his name during the liturgy.
Gregory
subsequently distanced himself from Mark.
1286 Death of William of Moerbeke, a friend of Thomas Aquinas and a Flemish
Dominican. Moerbeke translated most of the works of Aristotle and Archimedes
directly from Greek into Latin.
1289 Athanasius I (1289-93, 1303-9) became patriarch of Constantinople. He
was a moral reformer who intervened in secular politics in favor of Christian
principles. Athanasius worked for increased discipline in the monasteries, and
chastised bishops who drew large incomes from churches. Athanasius used
funds confiscated from monasteries to feed the poor in the city during a famine.
It is also thought that Athanasius approved of the sequestering of church
property for the benefit of the state.
1290 The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle composed, a story of the war against the
pagans in Latvia and Estonia.
1291 On 18 May, the Crusaders lost control of Acre, their last foothold in
Palestine.
1293 In Egypt, when a Copt on horseback was seen leading a Muslim debtor
bound with a rope, a Muslim mob murdered the Copt, then proceeded to
massacre Copts and loot their homes.
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1294 Peter Murrone, an ancient and illiterate hermit, was elected Pope Celestine
V. He abdicated after six months.
1294 War between England and France led the kings of both countries to tax the
church. This action led eventually to the issuance of Unum Sanctum (see 1302).
1296 Pope Boniface IX (1294-1303) issued the bull Clericos Laicos, forbidding
clergy from paying taxes to secular authorities. He later modified this position in
his Ineffabilis Amor, which permitted clergy to pay taxes in a national
emergency. His Etsi de Statu (1297) clarified that the king himself could decide
when the situation constituted an emergency.
1299 Death of the Lithuanian prince Daumantas. He had become ruler of Pskov
in Russia, converted to Orthodoxy, and became known as Saint Timofey.
1300 Dante Aligheri (1265-1321), author of the Divine Comedy, flourished.
The Oxford Franciscan Duns Scotus (1266-1308) developed a nominalist
philosophy, designed to insure that revelation was safeguarded as the sole
source of knowledge of the divine being. His design was to protect the majesty
of God and freedom of the will from Thomistic determinism.
1300 Approximately two million pilgrims came to Rome during this Jubilee year.
Two priests stood before the altar in St. Peters, literally raking in the money.
The Fourteenth Century
1301 Bishop Bernard Saisset of Pamiers (France) was arrested on suspicion of
treason and heresy (pro-Cathar leanings). Fearing a trial before the Inquisition,
Bernard appealed to the pope. Boniface demanded Bernard be tried in a church
court. The claim that a pope had the right to hear a case involving treason
against a secular ruler demaned justification – hence the bull Unum Sanctum
issued in December of the following year.
1301 The Muslim governor of Egypt ordered all churches to be closed.
1302 Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) issued the bull Unum Sanctum, which
elaborated on the Pope’s powers relative to those of the state and defined that
salvation is not possible for anyone not under the power of the Roman pontiff:
“We are compelled, our faith urging us, to believe and to hold—and we do firmly
believe and simply confess—that there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,
outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins; her Spouse
proclaiming it in the canticles, "My dove, my undefiled is but one, she is the
choice one of her that bore her"; which represents one mystical body, of which
body the head is Christ, but of Christ, God.
CHURCH HISTORY - 191
“In this Church there is one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism. There was one ark
of Noah, indeed, at the time of the flood, symbolizing one Church; and this being
finished in one cubit had, namely, one Noah as helmsman and commander. And,
with the exception of this ark, all things existing upon the earth were, as we
read, destroyed.
“This Church, moreover, we venerate as the only one, the Lord saying through
His prophet, ‘Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the
dog.’ He prayed at the same time for His Soul—that is, for Himself the Head,
and for His Body— which Body, namely, He called the one and only Church on
account of the unity of the Faith promised, of the sacraments, and of the love of
the Church. She is that seamless garment of the Lord which was not cut but
which fell by lot. Therefore of this one and only Church there is one body and
one head—not two heads as if it were a monster: Christ, namely, and the vicar
of Christ, Saint Peter, ‘Feed my sheep.’ My sheep, He said, using a general term,
and not designating these or those particular sheep; from which it is plain that
He committed to him all His sheep.
“If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of
Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep
of Christ; for the Lord says, in John, that there is one fold, one shepherd, and
one only.
“We are told by the word of the Gospel that in this His fold there are two
swords—a spiritual, namely, and a temporal. For when the apostles said, ‘Behold
here are two swords’—the Lord did not reply that this was too much, but enough.
Surely he who denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter wrongly
interprets the word of the Lord when He says, ‘Put up thy sword in its scabbard.’
Both swords, the spiritual and the material, therefore, are in the power of the
Church; the one, indeed, to be wielded for the Church, the other by the Church;
the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and knights,
but at the will and sufferance of the priest. One sword, moreover, ought to be
under the other, and the temporal authority to be subjected to the spiritual. For
when the Apostle says ‘There is no power but of God, and the powers that are of
God are ordained,’ they would not be ordained unless sword were under sword
and the lesser one, as it were, were led by the other to great deeds.
“For according to St. Dionysius the law of Divinity is to lead the lowest through
the intermediate to the highest things. Not, therefore, according to the law of
the universe are all things reduced to order equally and immediately; but the
lowest through the intermediate, the intermediate through the higher. But that
the spiritual exceeds any earthly power in dignity and nobility we ought the more
openly to confess, the more spiritual things excel temporal ones. This also is
made plain to our eyes from the giving of tithes, and the benediction and the
sanctification; from the acceptation of this same power, from the control over
those same things. For, the truth bearing witness, the spiritual power has to
establish the earthly power, and to judge if it be not good. Thus, concerning the
Church and the ecclesiastical power, is verified the prophecy of Jeremias: ‘See, I
have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,’ and the other
things which follow.
CHURCH HISTORY - 192
“Therefore if the earthly power err, it shall be judged by the spiritual power; but
if the lesser spiritual power err, by the greater. But if the greatest, it can be
judged by God alone, not by man, the Apostle hearing witness. A spiritual man
judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one. This authority, moreover,
even though it is given to man and exercised through man, is not human but
rather divine, being given by divine lips to Peter and founded on a rock for him
and his successors through Christ Himself whom He has confessed; the Lord
Himself saying to Peter: ‘Whatsoever thou shalt bind,’ etc. Whoever, therefore,
resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordination of God, unless he
makes believe, like the Manichean, that there are two beginnings. This we
consider false and heretical, since by the testimony of Moses, not ‘in the
beginnings,’ but ‘in the beginning’ God created the heavens and the earth.
“We declare, say, define and pronounce, that it is absolutely necessary for the
salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
The bull was issued during a conflict with King Philip IV of France (1285-1314)
over control of church funds. Philip needed revenue to war with England and to
improve his position relative to the nobility. After the bull was issued, Philip
attempted to kidnap Boniface and bring him to trial in France. In September
1303, Boniface was taken, but he was rescued by a mob, only to die three
months later.
By Boniface’s time, the papal crown had grown to a great conical tiara.
centuries earlier, it had still been a simple white cap.
Two
1304 Clement V (1305-14), a Frenchman, was elected pope, and remained in
France. This was the beginning of the Avignon papacy.
1306 Robert I Bruce became king of the Scots and led a Scottish revolt against
England.
1307 King Philip IV of France had all Templars in France arrested and their
property seized. The Templars were accused of vice and sacrilege.
1308 Peter, Metropolitan of Russia (1308-26) decided to settle in the small town
of Moscow.
1309 The Teutonic Knights (see 1220+) settled its headquarters at Marienburg
(Malbork), Prussia. With the crusades in the Holy Land ended, they set their
sights on military subjugation of the eastern Baltic coast.
1312 The Order of the Knights Templar was suppressed in France. At a council
held in Vienne, Clement V (1305-14) dissolved the mercenary order. The
Templars’ goods outside France were transferred to the Orders of the Hospital.
Clement also absolved Philip, king of France, of all blame in the matter of the
attempted kidnapping of Boniface (see 1302) and the seizure of the Templars’
property (1307).
1314 Scotland won independence at Bannockburn.
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1314? Birth of St. Sergius of Radonezh (1314-92). Perhaps the greatest national
saint of Russia, Sergius was the major motivating force between the building of
monasteries in the eastern wastelands, thus spreading Russian civilization into
the wilderness. Sergius emphasized a life of prayer and humility. One visitor to
the monastery, upon seeing Sergius at work in the garden, said, “I came to see a
prophet, and you show me a beggar.”
1317 In his bull Gloria Ecclesiam Pope John XXII (1316-34) condemned as
heretics those who insisted on following the original rule of St. Francis of Assissi.
1321 Muslim authorities in Egypt had 60 churches destroyed, along with many
monasteries.
1323 The grand duke of Lithuania, Gediminas (1315-41), appealed for skilled
immigrants from Germany. He sent an open letter to Lubeck, Bremen, and
Magdeburg, making it plain that immigrants could retain their Christian religion.
He also sponsored an Orthodox metropolitanate under the jurisdiction of the
Ecumenical Patriarch for the benefit of his Orthodox subjects. At this time, and
until 1385, Lithuania was officially pagan.
Gediminas considered adopting
Roman Catholicism, but he was advised against it by a certain Dominican friar
named Nicholas, who insisted that the faith not be accepted from the relatively
uninfluential bishop of Riga.
1323 In his bull Cum inter nonullos, Pope John XXII (1316-34) condemned the
doctrine of apostolic poverty as a heresy. This view was common among
Franciscans. John was nicknamed ‘The Banker of Avignon.’
During John’s papacy, Trinity Sunday was added to the Roman calendar.
festival had first appeared in the Low Countries in the tenth century.
The
1324William of Occam (d. 1350), an English Franciscan friar, defended his
philosophy at the bishop of Rome’s court in Avignon. Occam held that logic does
not deal with being as such. In his view, propositions are purely forms of
thought divested of ontological content, of any connection with ultimate reality.
Ultimate truth cannot therefore be grasped intellectually.
1327-39 The Coptic Pope Benjamin II held office. During this period, Copts in
Egypt were protected from persecution through the Ethiopian emperor’s threat to
use force on their behalf.
1328 The Provincial Synod of Canterbury ordered the observance of the Feast of
the Conception (of Mary). It did so because her conception was a significant
event leading up to the Incarnation, not because of a belief in her Immaculate
Conception.
1333St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), Metropolitan of Thessalonika, defended
the Orthodox doctrine of hesychast prayer and the use of the Jesus Prayer. One
of his controversies was with Barlaam the Calabrian (see 1341 and 1351 below).
Gregory is commemorated on the Second Sunday of Great Lent.
1334 Benedict XII (1334-42) became pope. He was very frugal and cut church
expenses by 75%. He also drank heavily. The expression, ‘Let us drink like a
pope’ came into popularity during his tenure.
CHURCH HISTORY - 194
1339 The Hundred Years War between England and France began. The English
gained victories at Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) (where the king of France,
John, was taken prisoner) though use of the longbow.
1340 Two Bohemian Franciscans executed in Lithuania for proselytizing.
1340 The Hagioritic Tome published.
1341 A synod met in St. Sophia in Constantinople and condemned the
sacramental theology of Barlaam the Calabrian. Barlaam was a Western convert
to Orthodoxy who taught Western notions. Some of his condemned doctines are
listed below (1351).
1342 Clement VI (1342-52) became pope. He restored the largesse Benedict XII
had restrained, passing favors through his lover, the Countess of Turenne.
Clement was a patron to the poet Petrarch, who referred to him as an
‘ecclesiastical Dionysius ... soiled with incestuous embraces.’ Petrarch referred
to Avignon as ‘the Babylon of the West.’
1342 Louis the Great became king of Hungary (1342-82). Occupied with wars
against Naples and Venice, Louis also found time to attempt to gain hegemony
over the Slavic nations of the East. However, his militant Catholicism alienated
these Orthodox peoples. Louis, in his turn, gave them little assistant against the
advancing Turks.
1344 Prague became an archbishopric.
1345 During his reign, Grand Duke Algirdas (1345-77) of Lithuania approached
the pope three times and the Ecumenical Patriarch twice over the possibility of
accepting a form of the Christian faith.
1346 An independent patriarchate was established in Serbia.
1346 The Teutonic Knights bought out Denmark’s claims to Estonia. The Knights
concentrated their aggression on Lithuania, the only independent pagan state in
Europe, because it separated their Prussian territory from their lands in Livonia
and Estonia.
1348 The year of the Black Plague.
1351 In England, Parliament passed the Statute of Provisors. The Pope had been
in the habit of appointing “provisors” to benefices (church offices that provided
income without necessarily requiring work) in England. (Provisors were persons
designated to come into a benefice when the the incumbent was still living.) The
statute enacted that any person who accepted such a provision, thus disturbing
the right of the patron (the person rightly empowered to grant the benefice), was
to be imprisoned until he paid a fine and given assurances that he would not
repeat the offence or appeal to a foreign court.
1351Nicholas Cabasilas became bishop of Thessalonica. He is best known as the
author of The Life in Christ, a work on the mysteries (sacraments).
CHURCH HISTORY - 195
1351 The following anathemas against Barlaam and Acindynus are included in
the Synodicon of Orthodoxy (see 842 above). Barlaam was condemned by the
Council of St. Sophia in 1341, and Acindynus by the Council of Blachernae in
1351:
(50) Barlaam and Acindynus and their followers;
(51) those who think that the light of Christ's Transfiguration was an apparition;
and those who say it was the essence of God; anyone who does not confess that
the divine light is the uncreated grace and energy of God which always proceeds
from God's essence;
(52) those who refuse to recognize the undivided distinction between God's
essence and his energy;
(53) those who deny that the energy of God is uncreated;
(54) those who say that the distinction between energy and essence implies that
God is not simple and uncompounded;
(55) those claim that the term "Godhead" is rightly applied only to the essence of
God, and not to the divine energy;
(56) those who say that the divine essence is communicated;
(57) all the sacrilegious writings of those men;
The Council of Blachernae also condemned Isaac Argyrus, a disciple of
Nicephorus Gregoras. Apparently, he held many of the views condemned in the
anathemas immediately above.
1353 The Statute of Praemunire enacted in England. This law required anyone
who took a case to a foreign court to appear before the king’s justices to answer
for the contempt this act showed to the king. Anyone who failed to do so would
forfeit all lands and goods. Praemunire was intended to stop appeals to the Pope
and his courts. (The name “praemunire” comes from the opening words of the
statute, and means “to forewarn.”)
1365 King Edward III (1327-1377) of England issued a proclamation against
‘whoring’ in the fields and against wasting time playing football or other games,
dicing and dancing on Sunday. This is indicative both of the wealth of medieval
society, which allowed so much free time, and Edward’s desire to promote
archery. (See the entry for 1339.)
1365 Church property in Egypt was confiscated to finance a war in Cyprus.
1375 Pope Gregory XI (1370-78) established a Latin metropolitanate at Lvov
(modern Ukraine). He ordered that all Orthodox bishops be removed from the
new metropolitanate.
1376Gregory XI moved the papacy back to Rome. The move was required to
keep the papal properties in Italy from revolt, and was urged by Petrarch and
Saint Catherine of Siena.
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1378 The Lateran Palace burned during the election of Urban VI (1378-89), an
Italian, to the papacy. Fire was set by angry rioters. The mob made it clear to
the assembled cardinals that they would have a Roman or Italian pope, not a
French one. Later that year, after being insulted by Urban, the French cardinals
met and elected Robert of Geneva, whose mercenaries had ravaged the town of
Cesena, Pope Clement VII. Thus began what is termed the ‘Great Schism.’
France, Flanders, Spain, and Scotland acknowledged Clement VII. The Empire
and England, with the northern and eastern nations and most of the Italian
Republics, adhered to Urban VI.
1380 The Nikdo-Ugreshsky monastery founded near Moscow by Dimitry Donskoy
(Dimitry of the Don) on the site where an icon of St. Nicholas appeared
predicting victory in the battle of Kulikovo.
1380The Russians, under the Grand Dukes of Moscow, defeated the Mongols at
the battle of Kulikovo. This considerably weakened the Mongol hold over Russia.
Before the battle, Prince Dimitry Donskoy, leader of the Russian forces, visited
St. Sergius of Radonezh and obtained his blessing.
1380 Late in this century the strigol’niki appeared in Novgorod. Originally, they
protested the practice, contrary to canon law, of bishops charging ordination
fees. Later, the strigol'niki split into two groups. The more moderate rejoined
the Orthodox Church in Russia in the fifteenth century. The extremists ended by
rejecting Christ, the New Testament, and belief in the resurrection and the
afterlife. They seem to have disappeared by the mid-fifteenth century.
1381 The Peasant's Revolt in England in June and July of this year was triggered
by the imposition of a tax of one shilling on everyone over 16 years of age. The
peasants captured London and beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury.
1381John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian, published his “Confession,” in which he
denied that the substance of the bread and wine are transubstantiated in the
mass. Wyclif rejected indulgences, auricular confession, extreme unction and
holy orders. He took the Bible alone, without tradition as the sole rule of faith,
and taught that the church was composed of the predestined only. A council
meeting in London condemned his teachings in 1382. Wyclif died in 1384.
1382 Nicholas Hereford delivered a series of sermons in Oxford, England, in May
and June of this year, in which he criticized the church and the clergy for their
obsession with money and litigation. He implied that if the church could not
correct itself, and if the king did not act, the laity should.
1382 When Grand Duke Kestutis of Lithuania died in this year, he was cremated
in Vilnius with his hounds, horses, and hawks, a magnificent pagan funeral.
1382 The Anno Domini system of dating adopted in Castille.
1384 A ten-year-old girl named Jadwiga (daughter of Louis the Great of
Hungary) became ruler of Poland.
1386 The grand duke of Lithuania, Jogaila, was baptized under the name
Ladislas, then married Jadwiga of Poland, thus ending Lithuania’s status as
Europe’s sole pagan state, and gaining the throne of Poland.
CHURCH HISTORY - 197
The combined Polish and Lithuanian crown in time ruled Ukraine as well, as the
Poles expanded into the sparsely populated region. The Roman Catholic king of
Poland and Lithuania thus appointed the Orthodox bishops of Ukraine.
1386 Geoffrey Chaucer began writing the Canterbury Tales.
The Turks conquered Thessalonica.
1387 The University of Paris condemned a Dominican who denied the doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. It ordered all faculty members to
accept it.
1389 An army of Serbs, Romanians and Moldovians was defeated by the Turks at
Kosovo, resulting in the subjection of those nations.
1389 Several Copts who had converted to Islam, then reverted, were publicly
executed.
1390 The Turkish sultan Bayazid I destroyed every market town and village from
Bithynia to Thrace. All the inhabitants were deported.
1390 The first German paper mill established - at Nuremburg.
European mill had been established in Spain in 1074.
The first
1393 In England, the Great Statute was enacted. It punished by loss of lands
and goods all persons who would introduce papal bulls into the kingdom on
either of two subjects: (1) bulls to excommunicate bishops who enforced the
King’s decisions with regard to the appointment of clergy to vacant benefices,
and (2) bulls to move bishops from one see to another. Pope Boniface IX (13891404) had threatened to move bishops about to impair their usefulness in civil
offices.
1396 Crusading armies under John of Burgundy and King Sigismund of Hungary
were annihilated at Nicopolis by a Turkish force under the Sultan Bajazeth. This
left Hungary open to invasion. Hungary was given respite when the Turks turned
to attack the Romans and were later themselves beset by the Mongols.
The Fifteenth Century
1401 A debate was held at Oxford on the question of whether English was a
suitable language for the translation of the Bible. Though Richard Ullerston
defended English with skill, the debate dismissed English as unfit.
1402 Sultan Bajazeth’s Turkish forces defeated by Tamburlaine of Samarkand’s
Mongols near Angora. Mongol forces moved through Asia Minor, as far as
Smyrna on the Aegean.
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1407 Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, decreed:
“We therefore
legislate and ordain that nobody shall from this day forth translate any text of
Holy Scripture on his own authority into the English, or any other, language,
whether in the form of a book, pamphlet, or tract; and that any such book,
pamphlet, or tract, whether composed recently or in the time of John Wycliffe, or
in the future, shall not be read in part or in whole, in public or in private.”
1408 A decree known as The Constitutions of Oxford made translation of the
whole Bible or any part of it into English illegal.
1409 The two rival colleges of cardinals agreed that the schism should be ended
and called a synod, which met in Pisa. It elected Alexander V pope, but neither
the Roman nor the Avignon pope abdicated. There were thus now three rival
claimants to the papacy and three colleges of cardinals. Alexander died shortly
and was replaced by John XXIII.
The canonical standing of the council of Pisa was unclear. As summarized by
Conrad of Gelnhausen: “It is impossible for a general council to be held or
celebrated without the authority of the pope. But to convene such a council in
the present case the pope cannot step in, because no person is universally
recognized as pope.”
1410 King Sigismund of Hungary elected German (Holy Roman) Emperor.
1410-13 Musa, son of the Turkish sultan Bayazid I, raided Serbia, pillaging the
countryside.
The young men were enslaved, while the remainder of the
population was slaughtered. In three small towns, everyone was killed.
1414 Sir John Oldcastle led a Lollard rebellion, which failed to capture London.
Lollard was a Dutch word for “babbler.” The Lollards read Wyclif’s English Bible.
1414 At the insistence of the German (Holy Roman) Emperor Sigismund, John
XXIII (1410-1417) called the council of Constance. Gregory XII (1406-1415)
was the pope in Rome at this time, while Benedict XIII (1394-1415) was pope in
Avignon. Gregory XII abdicated after declaring the council genuine. The council
deposed John and Benedict, but Benedict ignored his deposition and continued to
maintain his claim from the Castle of Pensacola. The council then elected Martin
V pope, who confirmed the acts of the council, except the decrees of the 4th and
5th sessions which declared that the council held its authority immediately from
God and that even the pope was subject to it: “[t]his holy synod of Constance,
being a General Council lawfully assembled in the name of the Holy Ghost, and
representing the Church militant, has received immediately from Jesus Christ a
power to which all persons of whatever rank and dignity, not excepting the pope
himself, are bound to submit in those matters which concern the faith, the
extirpation of the existing schism, and the reformation of the Church in head and
members.” (Sacrosancta, 1415). Frequens (1417) called for regular councils of
the church, separated by no more than 10 years. Martin V promised to call
another council in 10 years.
The English and Germans had wished to reform church government before
electing a new pope, in face of opposition from the French and Spaniards. Once
Martin V had been elected, the chance for meaningful reform was lost.
CHURCH HISTORY - 199
1415 On July 6, John Huss burned at the stake at the Council of Constance.
John Huss was influenced by the doctrines of Wyclif, though he did continue to
accept transubstantiation. The Hussites fought for the restoration of communion
under both ‘species’ (bread and wine) and infant communion.
1420 The Anno Domini dating system adopted in Portugal.
1429 Joan of Arc convinced the dauphin that she was in receipt of divine
communications. She fought against the English, having been given command of
a troop of soldiers. Joan was tried by French and Burgundian clerics, who
handed her over to the English. She was burnt in the marketplace in Rouen in
1431.
1429 The Solovetsky monastery established on the Solovki Islands in the White
Sea. The Solovki archipelago consists of six large and many small islands. The
monastery was established by saints Zosima, Savvaty, and German. In addition
to its spiritual work, the monastery played a major role in the economic
development of the region, particularly in salt production. (See 1922 for a
related entry.)
1431 The next general council of the church in the West met at Basel. The pope,
Eugene IV (1431-47) attempted to suppress the council at the end of its first
year, but was unsuccessful, then he changed his mind and declared the council
ecumenical. The council elected Felix V pope. In 1449, the council of Basel
yielded to Nicholas V and dissolved itself. Thus ended the ‘conciliar epoch’ of
reform in the West.
Bohemia had been in rebellion since the burning of John Huss at the council of
Constance. Armies had invaded Bohemia to bring the rebels to submission, but
they were repeatedly defeated. The council of Basel determined to negotiate
with the Hussites, so their representatives were invited to the council - though
first the streets were swept clean of prostitutes to avoid offending the heretics.
The Calixtines or Ultraquists - moderate Hussites - convinced the counccil to
agree to four articles, known as the Compactata. These (1) allowed communion
in both kinds, (2) the unimpeded preaching of the word of God, (3) the clergy to
live in complete poverty, and (4) open sin to be suppressed. But the hard line
Hussites - known as Taborites after their stronghold in Tabor - refused the
Compactata. The Calixtines subsequently defeated the Taborites, in 1434. The
papacy, however, refused to accept the Compactata, and Pius II declared them
void in 1460. They remained in force in Bohemia, however, until 1567.
The council of Basel passed a decree in favor of the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception.
Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47) had sent Cardinal Giovanni de
Turrecremata to the council, and Turrecremata wrote a detailed treatise against
the doctrine. Turrecremata was unable to present his dissertation to the council,
as he was recalled because of a dispute between the council and the pope. Pope
Pius II (1458-64) later honored Turrecremata with the title “Defender and
Protector of the Faith.”
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1438 In France, a national assembly met in Bourges and issued a document
called the Pragmatic Sanction.
It recognized decrees made at Basel and
Constance affirming the superiority of councils to popes; the rights of elections
traditionally enjoyed by cathedral chapters, collegiate churches, and
monasteries; abolished annates and other forms of papal taxation and meddling;
and warned the pope against becoming involved in ecclesiastical trials before
they ascended to him through the various levels of appeal courts.
1439 The French Parlement made the Pragmatic Sanction a statute for France.
1441 From the rival Council of Florence, under Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47):
“The Most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none
of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews,
and heretics, and schismatics, can ever be partakers of eternal life, but that they
are to go into the eternal fire ‘which was prepared for the devil, and his angels,’
(Mt. 25:41) unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important
is the unity of this Ecclesiastical Body, that only those remaining within this unity
can profit from the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and that they alone
can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, almsdeeds, and other works of
Christian piety and duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as
great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can
be saved unless they abide within the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”
The Roman (Byzantine) Emperor John VIII (1425-48) attended this council.
John’s military situation had become desperate, and he needed assistance from
the West to defend his empire from the Turks. His delegation included the
patriarch of Constantinople and St. Mark of Ephesus.
It was at the Council of Florence that the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory
was defined (but see 1274 above). Purgatory, as the Latins understand it, is
required not simply to refine the soul to the point it can enter heaven, but it is
the occasion for paying off the temporal punishment due to sin. The Orthodox
objected to several aspects of the Latin teaching on purgatory. Where the Latins
taught an eternal fire (hell) and a temporal fire of purgatory, the Orthodox
accepted only the existence of the eternal fire. For the Orthodox, the temporal
punishment of sinful souls occurs in a place of darkness and sorrow. These souls
are punished through deprivation of the Divine light and are purified - freed from
the place of darkness - by means of prayers, the Holy Eucharistt, works of
charity, but not by fire.
The Orthodox countered the Latin appeal to 1
Corinthians 3.10-15 by showing that the Day (verse 13) refers to the last
judgment, the fire is the eternal fire, and the words “saved yet as by fire” mean
preserved while undergoing punishment. They also remarked that, under the
Latin view, the words “he will suffer loss” were false, since the one being purified
by purgatorial fire was supposed to benefit greatly by the experience. The
Orthodox interpretation comports with St. John Chrysostom’s commentary on the
passage. The Orthodox added, “It is very right to suppose that the Greeks
should understand Greek words better than foreigners.”
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The issue of the filioque was discussed, with the West avowing that the Spirit
proceeded from the Father and the Son as from one principle – this to answer
the Eastern concern that the Westerners were multiplying principles within the
Godhead. St Mark of Ephesus elaborated the Orthodox objection: “The second
Ecumenical Council, wishing to explain the words of the Nicene Creed: ‘and in
the Holy Ghost,’ and to show more clearly against heretics how it is that the Holy
Ghost is reckoned together with the Fathe and the Son, speaks thus in its
symbol:
‘we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, Who
proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is
worshipped and glorified.’ Here attention must be paid to the objects the Fathers
had in view when writing these words. The Council wished to represent the
manner of the Holy Ghost’s union with the Father and the Son. See now how
distinctly the Council marks the affinity of the Holy Ghost with the Father and the
Son: the Fathers did not say that the Spirit is reckoned with the Father and the
Son, but that He proceeds from the Father, and is worshipped and glorified
together with the Father and the Son. That is, He is of equal honor and
consubstantial with Them. If the Council had admitted the Spirit’s procession
from the Father and the Son, why then did it not in speaking of the Father and
the Son, say: ‘Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the
Father and the Son is together worshipped and together glorified?’ This is what
should have been said if the Council had adhered to such a doctrine. But
whereas, in the first case, the Fathers did not mention the Son when they were
showing the cause of the procession, but did mention Him in the second place
when showing His equality of honor and consubstantiality, then it is plain that
they did not admit of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son also.”
In part, the confession the Orthodox signed read: “We decree that the Holy
Apostolic Throne and Roman Pontiff possess a primacy over the whole earth, and
that this Roman Pontiff is the Successor of the blessed Peter, Prince of the
Apostles, and is the true Vicar of Christ, the Head of the whole Church, Pastor
and Teacher of all Christians; and that our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of St.
Peter has given him full authority to shepherd, direct and rule the whole Church,
as is likewise contained in the acts of the Ecumenical Councils and in the holy
canons.” The document was signed on July 5, 1439, in a ceremony in which the
Orthodox kissed the pope’s knee. St. Mark of Ephesus, however, did not sign,
and Pope Eugenius is reported to have remarked on learning this, “And so we
have accomplished nothing.” So convinced was Eugenius of the necessity of
Mark’s support that he met with Mark privately in an attempt to convince him to
sign the agreement, but Mark refused, saying that he would hold steadfast to the
Orthodox faith.
The Council of Florence effected an apparent reunion between East and West,
but, as the Eastern representatives pointed out, their personal opinions did not
count for the Church as a whole, and could only be validated by an Eastern
synod. The reunion, thus, never really came into force. Most of the delegates
renounced their signatures when they reached home. The council’s decrees were
never accepted by more than a small fraction of Orthodox people and clergy.
The Grand Duke Lucas Notaras said, “I would rather see the Muslim turban in the
midst of the city than the Latin mitre.”
1443? Invention of the moveable type printing press.
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1448 When the Metropolitan of Russia, Isidore, returned to Moscow in 1441, he
strongly supported the reunion. The Grand Duke imprisoned him, then allowed
him to escape to Italy. Since Constantinople officially supported Florence until
1453, the Russians could not appeal to her for a replacement. So, in 1448, a
council of Russian bishops elected a new metropolitan by itself. The church of
Moscow thus became autocephalous. The metropolitan of Kiev continued to be
under the jurisdiction of Constantinople until 1646, when it passed under
Moscow.
1452-56 Gutenburg Bible printed.
1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks.
1453 The English were expelled from France entirely, except for Calais (end of
the Hundred Years War).
1457 Lorenzo Valla suggested that the works of the Pseudo-Dionysius were not
genuine. But he compared their anonymous author with Gregory the Great in
terms of theological quality.
1458 The Turks captured Athens. The Parthenon, which had been a church since
around 450, was converted into a mosque.
1460 Pius II issued his bull Execrabilis, denouncing appeals to councils.
1466 Mentelin of Strasbourg printed the Bible in German, fifty-six years before
Luther’s German New Testament was published.
1470 Beginning of the Judaizer heresy in the Orthodox Church in Russia. It was
initiated, apparently, by the Jewish physician to Prince Alexander Olel'kovich of
Novgorod, a certain Zachariah (or Skharia), and two of his merchant
companions: Moded Hanush and Joseph Shmoilo Skarabei. The Judaizers
argued that Jesus' words in support of the Old Testament (Matt 5.17-20) implied
that the Old was superior to the New. They denied the Trinity and opposed
icons, crosses, and monasteries.
1470 Around this year, Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) completed a translation of the
works of Plato into Latin. His work initiated the Florentine Platonic Renaissance.
His translation was not published until 1484. Ficino believed that all religions
have a share of the truth.
1472 Ivan III (the Great) married Sophia, niece of the last Byzantine emperor.
The Grand Dukes of Moscow began to call themselves Tsar.
1472 The Orthodox were expelled from Yuryev (Tartu), Estonia, by Germans.
The Orthodox priest Isidore and a number of believers were martyred.
1476 William Caxton, England’s first printer, set up a press at Westminster. His
first printed work was an indulgence.
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1478 At the request of the Catholic monarchs of Aragon and Castille, Pope Sixtus
IV (1471-84) authorized the Spanish Inquisition. Their goal was to combat Jews
and Muslims who had converted to Catholicism then apostatized, as well as
heretics. In 1483, the pope authorized the Spanish government to designate a
grand inquisitor – the first one being the Dominican Tomas de Torquemada.
Roughly 2000 persons were burned at the stake during his tenure.
1479 The Judaizer heresy gained political clout when Ivan III, impressed with
their learning, appointed the Judaizer priests Abraham and Dennis rectors of the
two large cathedrals in Moscow. Ivan himself eventually espoused their views.
St. Joseph of Volokolamsk (1439-1515) founded a monastery at Volokolamsk.
He had been abbot of Borovsk in 1477, which Prince Ivan III Vasilyevich had
used as a waypoint for advancing his sons into episcopal benefices. Prince Ivan
had become disgruntled with Joseph's ascetic reforms.
The monastery at
Volokolamsk became a center for monastic reform. Joseph's followers, called
Josephites, became active in a movement to insure uniformity in the Church,
using the state as a weapon against dissenters and heretics. In their view, also,
monks should be allowed to own property for good works, such as charity and
education. Those who held this position became known as “Possessors.”
1483 Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) forbade condemnations of both proponents and
opponents of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
1483 By this year there were nine different German translations of the Bible in
print. (See 1466 above.)
1484 An Orthodox council meeting in Constantinople declared that Roman
Catholic converts were to be received through chrismation.
1486 Ivan the Great's chief diplomat, Theodore Kuritsyn, returned from Hungary
where he had adopted views very similar to the Judaizer heresy. The influential
Kuritsyn propagated the heresy among Moscow's social elite. The appeal of the
heresy centered in its advocacy of alchemy and astrology.
1490Zosima, an advocate of the Judaizer heresy, elected metropolitan of
Moscow.
In the same year, Archbishop Gennadi and Abbot Joseph of Novgorod had nine
Judaizer clerics imprisoned.
Around this time, Gennadi organized the translation of the Bible into Slavonic.
Though completed around the turn of the century, the complete Slavonic Bible
(known as the Ostrozhsky or Ostrong Bible because it was published at the
Ostrozhskii princes' printing house) was not printed until 1580-82.
1492 Columbus discovered America.
1492 The Moslems were driven out of Spain.
1492 On March 30, Ferdinand and Isabella signed an edict that gave unbaptized
Jews until July 31 to leave the country. Roughly 50,000 accepted baptism and
remained. About 100,000 departed.
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1492Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503). To become pope,
Rodrigo had purchased the votes of his fellow cardinals. As a cardinal, Rodrigo
had sired four children by Vannoza de’ Catanei. In 1489, he began an affair with
the 16 year-old Giulia Farnese.
1493 Pope Alexander divided the new world between Spain and Portugal.
1494 Influenced by Abbot Joseph of Novgorod, a council deposed the Judaizer
metropolitan of Moscow, Zosima, for sodomy, debauchery, the denial of the
resurrection of Christ and the afterlife. Joseph also published a book entitled The
Enlightener against the Judaizers.
1497 Theodore Kuritsyn died, and Abbot Joseph was able to move against the
Judaizers.
1499 Erasmus visited Britain. Among many other accomplishments, Erasmus
divided the Bible into verses and discredited the Donation of Constantine.
1500 Publication of the Mozarabic rite missal by Cardinal Ximenes of Toledo. He
presented the breviary in 1502.
1500 A translation of the Bible into French had been printed by this year.
The Sixteenth Century
1503 A Russian church council held in this year resulted in the division of the
Russian Orthodox Church between the Possessors and the Non-Possessors. The
Non-Possessors wanted to divest monasteries of their land. The monasteries
held about a third of Russian land in this period. The Non-Possessor position was
argued by Nils Sorsky (1433-1508).
The same council condemned the practice of charging ordination fees (see 1479
above).
1503 Erasmus published his Handbook of the Christian Soldier, in which he
presented a vision of the church in which the laity would gain power at the
expense of the wealth and influence of the clergy. It was translated into several
European languages and had become very popular by 1515.
1503 Spanish forces conquered Naples and began to dominate central Italy. This
would have consequences for Henry VIII, the papacy, and the English
Reformation. (See 1527.)
CHURCH HISTORY - 205
1506 The publication of John Reuchlin’s Rudiments initiated the birth of the
study of Hebrew among Western European scholars and theologians. Reuchlin
was accosted by John Pfefferkorn, a convert from Judaism, who agitated for the
destruction of Jewish books. The Dominicans supported Pferrerkorn and brought
a case against Reuchlin to the Inquisitor for Heretical Pravity for the diocese of
Cologne. The Inquisitor (Jakob von Hochstraten) ruled against Reuchlin. An
appeal was made to the pope, who initially ruled in favor of Reuchlin, then
ordered him to keep silent and pay the court costs. Reuchlin did neither. (When
the controversy over Luther arose, many saw it at first as another act in the
conflict between humanists and obscurantists.)
1509 Four Dominicans were burned at the stake in Berne for fabricating miracles
to discredit the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
1509 Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) married Henry VIII, king of England from
1509 to 1547.
1511-15 The Hunne Affair. In 1511, when the infant son of a London tailor
named Richard Hunne died, the church rector, Thomas Dryffeld, demanded the
bearing sheet as a mortuary fee. The rector sued Hunne for the fee, and Hunne
lost. Hunne in turned accused Dryffeld of violating the Praemunire Statute (see
1353 above). This raised the ire of the bishop of London, Richard Fitzjames.
Fitzjames had Hunne arrested and his house searched. A Wycliffite Bible was
found, along with some heretical books. Soon thereafter, Hunne was murdered
while in prison by the bishop’s chancellor, Dr. Horsey and two others. The
murderers were indicted, but never brought to trial. Fitzjames then presided
over a court that convicted Hunne of heresy. Hunne’s body was burned and,
since he had been a heretic, his property was forfeited to the crown and his
family became paupers.
1512 Jacques Lefevre, a professor at the University of Paris, published a Latin
translation of Paul’s epistles. Anticipating Luther by several years, he appended
a commentary in which he taught that salvation is by grace through faith in
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, not through works.
He also denied
transubstantiation.
1516 Erasmus’ Greek New Testament published – the first Greek New Testament
to be printed. It included a fresh translation into Latin. (In a note on Acts
17.34, Erasmus repeated Lorenzo Valla’s criticisms of the claim that Dionysius
himself authored the works of the Dionysian corpus.)
The first edition of Erasmus’ Greek New Testament was based on only four Greek
manuscripts, none earlier than the eleventh century. Even on the fourth edition,
he had only one Greek manuscript for the book of Revelation. This lacked the
final five verses, which Erasmus translated into Greek from Latin. He was
(rightly) criticized for this procedure.
CHURCH HISTORY - 206
Erasmus was also taken to task for undermining the authority of the Vulgate. A
certain scholar named Sutor argued, “if in one point the Vulgate were in error the
entire authority of the Holy Scripture would collapse.” Controversies arose over
Erasmus’ omissions of 1 John 5.7 (it was not in his manuscripts) and Matthew
6.13 (which was in his manuscripts, but which, he reasoned, could not have been
in the Greek text Jerome had read). He was also criticized for not correcting
Hebrews 2.7 according to the Hebrew, which has “a little lower than God” rather
than “a little lower than the angels;” for translating the Greek word for “repent”
with the Latin for “change your mind;” and the Greek word Logos with the Latin
sermo.
1516 The Pragmatic Sanction (see 1438 & 39) abolished by the Concordat of
Bologna, an agreement between the king of France and the pope. In return,
pope Leo X (1513-21) recognized the right of Francis I, king of France 15151547, to appoint bishops and abbots in his realm. The Gallican church was thus
in effect independent of the papacy.
1517 The fourth volume of the Complutensian Polyglot was printed. The Old
Testament of the Complutensian Bible has three columns: Hebrew, the Latin
Vulgate, and the Septuagint with an interlinear Latin translation. The third
column of the Complutensian Old Testament is the first printed edition of the
Septuagint. It is thought to reflect the Lucianic recension. The Polyglot did not
receive Papal sanction to be published until 1520.
1517 Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation by nailing his 95 theses to
the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Some of the theses:
27: They preach human doctrine who say that the soul flies out of purgatory as
soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles.
32 & 33: Those who believe that through letters of pardon they are made sure
of their own salvation will be eternally damned along with their teachers. We
must especially beware of those who say that these pardons from the Pope are
that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to God.
43: Christians should be taught that he who gives to a poor man or lends to a
needy man does better than if he buys indulgences.
45: Christians should be taught that he who sees anyone in need and, passing
him by, gives money for indulgences is not purchasing the indulgence of the
Pope, but calls down upon himself the wrath of God.
50: Christians should be taught that if the Pope knew of the exactions of the
preachers of indulgences, he would rather see the Basilica of St. Peter burned to
ashes than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
75 & 76: To think that papal indulgences have such power that they could
absolve a man even if – to mention an impossibility – he had violated the Mother
of God, is madness. We affirm, on the contrary, that papal indulgences cannot
take away even the least of venial sins as regards its guilt.
89: Since it is the salvation of souls, rather than money, that the Pope seeks
by granting indulgences, why does he suspend the letters and indulgences
granted long ago, since they are equally efficacious?
94 & 95: Christians should be exhorted to strive to follow Christ, their Head,
through pain, death, and hell; and thus to enter heaven through many
tribulations rather than in the security of peace.
1517 Egypt brought under Ottoman rule.
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1518 Andreas Asolanus published the second printed Septuagint, this from the
Aldine press, and known as the Aldine edition. The text is thought to reflect the
Hesychian recension.
1518 A diet of the Holy Roman Empire summoned by the Emperor Maximiliam
(1493-1519) met in Augsburg to consider whether Germany should pay a tax to
Rome in support of a crusade against the Turks. The diet refused, noting that
taxes for crusades had been used for other purposes, and that annates,
confirmation fees, and the costs of litigation in church courts were exorbitant. It
also criticized Rome for dealing out German benefices to Italian priests.
1519 Charles V, king of Spain, became Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1556).
1520 Erasmus’ Ratio (1520 edition) included these lines: “Some assert that the
universal body of the Church has been contracted into a single Roman pontiff
who cannot err on faith and morals, thus ascribing to the pope more than he
claims for himself, though they do not hesitate to dispute his judgment if he
interferes with their purses or their prospects. Is not this to open the door to
tyranny in case such power were wielded by an impious and pestilent man?”
1520 Luther published The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In it, he argued
that the papacy had held the church captive for 1000 years, corrupting it in faith,
morals, and ritual. He urged communion in both kinds and presented the theory
of consubstantiation, that Christ is present in the eucharist along with the bread
and wine. Earlier that year, in his Open Letter, Luther opposed the distinction
between clergy and laity, the right of popes to settle issues of scriptural
interpretation, and the popes’ supposed exclusive right to call a general council.
Later in the year, he published A Treatise on Christian Liberty, which stated his
belief that man is saved by faith alone, apart from works.
1520 Luther burned Pope Leo X’s bull of excommunication on 10 December.
1521 Diet of Worms. Protected by Frederick, the elector of Saxony, Luther
refused to recant. He declared that Popes and councils were fallible, but that the
Holy Scripture was infallible. The emperor Charles V determined to “proceed
against him as a notorious heretic” and in so doing he won papal support for his
coming war against France for control of Milan. Frederick concealed Luther in the
castle of Wartburg.
1522 The emperor Charles V introduced the Inquisition into the Netherlands in
order to wipe out Protestantism.
1522 Pope Hadrian VI (1522-24) taught that popes were capable of erring in
their official role as teachers of the Church.
1522 Luther’s German New Testament published.
1522 Erasmus’ Ratio (1522 edition) included these lines: “We do not impugn
the majesty of the Roman pontiff. Would that he had the qualities attributed to
him, that he were not able to err in matters of piety, that he were able to deliver
souls from purgatory.”
CHURCH HISTORY - 208
1525 William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament was partially
printed in Cologne. Before printing could be completed, the Catholic authorities
learned of the enterprise (through the loose lips of some printers who were
drinking in a public tavern) and conducted a raid. The printing was completed in
Worms in 1526. Following a convention popular among Lutherans, the 1525
printing lists Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation as being of doubtful
authenticity. This distinction was dropped in the 1526 printing.
1525/6 The Non-Possessors criticized Tsar Basil III for unjustly divorcing his
wife, and they were suppressed.
1526 The Ottoman Turks, under Sultan Suleiman I (1520-1566) defeated the
Hungarians at the battle of Mohacs, thus conquering Hungary and opening the
way to Vienna.
1527 Spanish troops and German mercenaries under Charles V sacked Rome.
This attack was in reprisal for Pope Clement VIII’s (1523-34) entering into an
alliance (the League of Cognac) with Milan, Venice and France to gain territory in
Italy. Clement was taken prisoner.
1527 Henry VIII, king of England, appealed to Rome for an annulment of his
marriage to Catherine of Aragon, aunt of the Emperor Charles V.
1528 On Feb 29, Patrick Hamilton was executed (burned alive) for heresy at St.
Andrews in Scotland. Hamilton had traveled to the Continent, where he met
Luther at Wittenburg and Tyndale at Marburg. After returning to Scotland, he
distributed a catechism entitled Patrick’s Places, which advocated justification by
faith.
1529 Henry VIII declared himself the head of the English church.
1529 Seige of Vienna. Suleiman’s forces besieged Vienna. The Turks arrived at
Vienna on September 27, and Suleiman boasted that he would be eating
breakfast in the city by the Feast of St. Michael (29 Sep). But the Turks failed to
take it, and eventually retreated (14 Oct), though they first massacred or burned
alive their prisoners, except those young enough for the slave markets.
1530 The Augsburg Confession, prepared by Philip Melanchthon as an
explanation of the Lutheran faith. The confession was presented to the emperor
Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. It affirms Trinitarian theology; the doctrine
that all those who are not regenerate are guilty of Adam’s sin; Christ’s deity,
incarnation, crucifixion, descent into hell, resurrection, and continuing
intersession; and justification by grace through faith, and not by works. Article X
states, “It is taught among us that the true body and blood of Christ are really
present in the Supper of the Lord under the form of bread and wine and are
there distributed and received.” Article XXII insists that communion should be in
both kinds (bread and wine). The confession also affirms the necessity and
efficacy of baptism and retained auricular confession.
1530 On December 8, a priest in Valencia, Spain, set off a riot when he denied
the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary during a sermon.
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1531 The Virgin Mary reportedly appeared to an Aztec named Juan Diego, about
5 miles north of Mexico City. As proof of her desire to have a chapel built at the
foot of Tepeyac Hill, she caused an image of herself to appear on Diego’s cape
and told him to call the image Santa Maria de Guadalupe.
1533 In March, the Act of Appeals was passed in England. This act forbade
appeals to the Pope on spiritual matters (including marriage). Matters relating to
the king were to be decided by the Upper House of Convocation. Thomas
Cromwell, the author of this legislation which enabled Henry VIII to obtain a
divorce from Catherine of Aragon, was shortly thereafter acknowledged as the
king’s chief minister.
The Convocations of Canterbury and York declared: “[t]he bishop of Rome has
not by Scripture any greater jurisdiction in this kingdom of England than any
other foreign prelate.” In the same year, both Convocations claimed that the
Pope had erred in permitting Henry to marry Catherine, since she had
consummated her marriage to his brother Arthur. In May, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage null.
1534 Parliament passed several more more significant pieces of legislation at
Thomas Cromwell’s urging: (1) the Act in Restraint of Annates, which forbade
annates (the first year’s revenue from a bishop’s benefice) to be sent to Rome
and obligated cathedral chapters to elect the king’s choice to bishoprics; (2) the
Dispensations Act, which entirely halted the flow of money from the church in
England to Rome and entitled the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant
dispensations (exceptions to canon law); (3) the Act for Submission of the
Clergy, which forbade Convocation to legislate except as the king permitted and
entitled the king to select a committee to oversee and veto all legislation
Convocation should pass; (4) the Succession Act, which made slandering Henry’s
marriage to Anne treason, made the offspring of Henry’s marriage to Anne his
rightful heirs, and required all adult subjects to swear an oath to uphold the act;
and (5) the Act of Supremacy, which permitted Henry to correct preachers,
oversee the proper statement of doctrine, try heretics, and discipline the clergy.
1534 A Dutch Bible by Jacob van Liesveldt segregated the apocryphal books.
This is the first vernacular Bible to do so. Luther’s German Bible of the same
year also segregated these books, entitling them the “Apocrypha” for the first
time.
1534/35 In Paris, twenty-four Protestants were burned alive between Nov 10,
1534, and May 5, 1535, in reprisal for French Reformers’ placing posters in
several French cities reviling the mass as idolatry and slandering the pope.
1535 First complete English Bible printed – Coverdale’s. His was also the first
English Bible to segregate the apocryphal books, though he did place Baruch at
the end of Jeremiah.
1535 Execution of Thomas More. More had refused to take the oath required by
the Succession Act (see 1534).
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1536 The Pilgrimage of Grace. This uprising, led by Robert Aske, was in part a
protest against Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. Aske and his
followers took York and demanded papal rule over the church and the calling of a
new Parliament. Thomas Howard, the third duke of Norfolk, by offering a pardon
persuaded Aske to send his forces home. Aske and about 250 others were
executed shortly thereafter.
1536 First edition of Calvin’s Institutes.
1536 William Tyndale, who had been imprisoned near Brussels at Henry VIII's
insistence, executed by strangling. His corpse was burned at the stake.
1536-40 The dissolution of English monasteries.
1537 Matthew’s Bible published. The work was edited by an associate of William
Tyndale’s, John Rogers. Matthew’s Bible was influenced by Tyndales work,
including Old Testament material translated by Tyndale but not previously
published.
1539 The Great Bible published, so called because of its size – each page
measuring 13 ¼ by 7 1/2 inches.
1539 The Six Articles Act passed by the English Parliament at the king’s
insistence. The act defended transubstantiation, communion in one kind, clerical
celibacy, vows of chastity, private masses, and auricular confession.
1540 Thomas Cromwell put to death. His execution was due to his arrangement
of the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne of Cleves, a German princess, in hope of
establishing an alliance with German Lutherans. Henry was unhappy with the
marriage and, as the Six Articles Act shows, not favorably disposed toward
Lutheran theology.
1540 Pope Paul III established the Jesuit order.
1541 John Calvin permanently established at Geneva.
1542 Pope Paul III (1534-49) established the Roman Inquisition to combat
Protestantism. It was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by
Pope Paul VI in 1965. Most of this Inquisition’s activities were in Italy.
1545 The Roman Catholic Council of Trent (1545-1563) was convened.
1545 Francis I, king of France (1515-47), allowed the Inquisition to persecute
the Waldensees, followers of Peter Waldo. The Waldensees lived in roughly 30
villages in Provence. Three thousand Waldensees were killed and a further 700
of the men were made galley slaves.
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1546 On 1 March, George Wishart was burned at St. Andrews, Scotland. Wishart
had been a schoolmaster at Montrose, where he had been charged with heresy
for teaching the New Testament in Greek (1538). He had also translated the
First Helvetic Confession of 1536 into Scots. Having gone to England and taught
at Cambridge, Wishart returned to Scotland at the request of Henry VIII to
arrange a marriage between Henry’s son Edward and the infant Mary, Queen of
Scots.
Wishart was executed at the urging of Cardinal David Beaton for
preaching the doctrines of the Reformation. Cardinal Beaton was subsequently
murdered. John Knox became associated with the murderers, and preached to
them at St. Andrews Castle. In 1548, Knox was captured by the French, and
spent 19 months as a galley slave.
1546 Fourteen Lutherans were burned to death at Meaux, France. The tongues
of eight of them had been torn out before the execution.
1546 In the 4th session, the Council of Trent defined: “It has thought it proper,
moreover, to insert in this decree a list of the sacred books, lest a doubt might
arise in the mind of some one as to which are the books received by this council.
They are the following: of the Old Testament, the five books of Moses, namely,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Josue, Judges, Ruth, the
four books of Kings, two of Paralipomenon, the first and second of Esdras, the
latter of which is called Nehemias, Tobias, Judith, Esther, Job, the Davidic Psalter
of 150 Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus, Isaias, Jeremias, with Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, the twelve minor
Prophets, namely, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc,
Sophonias, Aggeus, Zacharias, Malachias; two books of Machabees, the first and
second. Of the New Testament, the four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John; the Acts of the Apostles written by Luke the Evangelist; fourteen
Epistles of Paul the Apostle, to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, to the
Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to the
Thessalonians, two to Timothy, to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews; two of
Peter the Apostle, three of John the Apostle, one of James the Apostle, one of
Jude the Apostle, and the Apocalypse of John the Apostle. If anyone does not
accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid books in their entirety and with all
their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and
as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and
deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, let him be anathema.”
In addition, as regards the Vulgate, it added the following: “Moreover, the same
holy council considering that not a little advantage will accrue to the Church of
God if it be made known which of all the Latin editions of the sacred books now
in circulation is to be regarded as authentic, ordains and declares that the old
Latin Vulgate Edition, which, in use for so many hundred years, has been
approved by the Church, be in public lectures, disputations, sermons and
expositions held as authentic, and that no one dare or presume under any
pretext whatsoever to reject it.” Yet, this authenticity did not prevent the Roman
Catholic Church from declaring a new edition of the Vulgate as “typical” (see
1979).
1547 In the fifth session, the Council of Trent stated, “Justification ... is not
merely remission of sins, but also sanctification and renewal of the inward man.”
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Canon XI of the same session reads, “If anyone says that men are justified either
by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, to
the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by
the Holy Ghost and is inherent in them; or even that grace whereby we are
justified is only the favor of God: let him be anathema.”
Canon XIII: “If anyone says that it is necessary for everyone, in order to obtain
the remission of sins, that he believe for certain and without wavering ... that his
sins are forgiven him: let him be anathema.”
1546 In about this year Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbuty, abandoned
the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. He was influenced by Nicholas
Ridley, bishop of London from 1550, who had read Ratramnus’ De Corpore et
Sanguine Domini. (See 868, 1050, 1059.)
1547 Edward VI (1547-53) king of England. He was the son of Henry VIII and
Jane Seymour. As Edward was only nine years old, the government was
overseen by guardians, first Somerset, then Northumberland.
1547 In November, the English Parliament decreed that the Eucharist be
administered with both bread and wine (in both kinds).
1548 In England, the Privy Council outlawed candles at Candlemas, ashes on Ash
Wednesday, palms on Palm Sunday, repeatedly bowing before the cross on Good
Friday, and the use of holy water. The Council also outlawed the presence of any
images in churches.
1549 In February a bill was passed which legalized clerical marriage in England.
1549 The First English Book of Common Prayer introduced. It was opposed by
the Reformers because it retained too much from the older forms. In fact, it was
reportedly used at St. Paul’s in 1550 “as the very Mass.” The canon included a
prayer for the dead and thanked God for “the wonderful grace and virtue
declared … chiefly in the glorious and most blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Thy
Son Jesu Christ our Lord and God.” The 1549 canon also included an explicit
invocation of the Holy Spirit (absent from the earlier usage) before the words of
institution. Perhaps most significantly, in the the Book of Common Prayer the
liturgy was now in English instead of Latin. The Catholic-minded conservatives
would have preferred to retain the former services.
1550 In England, stone altars were replaced with wooden tables oriented eastwest, the priest standing on the north side. The change was initiated by Nicholas
Ridley, bishop of London, in June. In November, the Privy Council ordered all
bishops to follow Ridley’s example.
1551 In its thirteenth session, the Council of Trent decreed:
“[B]y the
consecration of the bread and of the wine, a conversion is made of the whole
substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of
the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood; which
conversion is suitably and properly called Transubstantiation by the holy Catholic
Church.”
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1552 The Second English Book of Common Prayer published. In contrast to the
first, this second prayer book suggested that the presence of Christ in
communion was only in the hearts of the believers.
The words said as
communion was distributed were changed from “The Body of our Lord Jesus
Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life”
to “Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him
in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.” It also contained the Black Rubric, that
explained of the command to kneel at the reception of communion, “that it is not
meant thereby that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the
sacramental bread or wine there bodily received, or to any real and essential
presence there being of Christ’s natural flesh and blood.” The recitation of the
Ten Commandments was first introduced in the 1552 book. A rubric concerning
vestments forbade the use of albs, vestments, or copes, but indicated that a
priest should wear a surplice, and a bishop a rochet.
The 1552 canon deleted the prayer invocing the Holy Spirit, first included in
1549. It moved the communion to a point immediately following the words of
institution (“this is my body” & etc.), perhaps to minimize any lingering tendency
to worship the host. This order is still followed in the English Book of Common
Prayer.
1553 Michael Severetus was burned at the stake in Geneva. Severetus was a
unitarian.
1553 The 42 articles of religion were published in England.
1554 Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, queen of
England 1553-58, married Philip of Spain and the persecution of Protestants
began in England. Three hundred heretics were burned between Feb 4, 1555
and Nov 10, 1558. The 1552 prayer book was replaced with the old Latin
liturgical books.
1555 The English Parliament restored Papal authority.
1555 Upon Mary’s ascendancy to the throne, approximately 800 English
Protestants fled to the continent. Initially they formed communities at Frankfurt,
Emden, Wesel, Strassburg and Zurich, and later settled in Basel, Geneva and
Aarau. Much Protestant propaganda made its way from Emden into England.
The community in Geneva was founded after a conflict in Frankfurt over use of
the 1552 Prayer Book. Moderate reformers under Richard Cox were opposed by
a group that wished for further purification, led by John Knox. Knox and many of
his followers were expelled from Frankfurt by the city authorities when the latter
learned (from one of Cox’ associates) that Knox had vilified Mary Tudor and the
emperor Charles V. Knox and several others then settled in Geneva, where a
team headed by William Whittingham and Antony Gilby later produced the
Geneva Bible (see 1560).
1555 Peace of Augsburg. After warring unsuccessfully against the German
Protestants since 1546, Charles V agreed to allow each prince determine the
religion of his state.
1555/56 John Knox permitted to preach in Scotland.
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1556 Philip II became king of Spain and prince of the Netherlands. He reigned
until 1598.
1556 In Strassburg the English exile John Ponet, formerly bishop of Winchester,
published a book entitled Short Treatise of Political Power in which he endorsed
tyrranicide. This book would be reprinted in 1639 and again in 1642, seven
years before Charles I was beheaded.
1557 In December, some Scottish nobles signed a “Covenant” to oppose Popery.
This was the first of several such covenants (see 1638).
1558 Elizabeth I (1558-1603) queen of England. She was the daughter of Henry
VIII and Anne Boleyn.
1559 The English Parliament passed (1) an act of uniformity, which required the
use of a modified form of the second Prayer Book (Cranmer’s book of 1552) and
(2) an act of supremacy, making Elizabeth head of the church. Among other
changes, the modified Prayer Book allowed priests and bishops their vestments
and deleted the explanation concerning kneeling. It also combined the words of
institution from 1549 with those of 1552.
1559 The Sacred Congregation of the Roman Inquisition (later known as the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued the first catalog of forbidden
books - the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Index of Forbidden Books. The
last edition of the Index was published in 1948, and it was finally suppressed in
1966. (See also 496 above.)
1559 John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs first published, in Latin.
printing was in 1563.
The first English
1560 The Geneva Bible published. This was the Bible of the Pilgrims, and
remained the most popular English translation until about the middle of the next
century. In this Bible, the text was divided into verses for the first time.
1560 On July 6, the Treaty of Leith or Edinburgh was signed. The Scottish
Protestants had allied themselves with the English and forced French troops to
exit Scotland. During the siege of Leith, the Queen Mother (mother of Mary,
Queen of Scots, who was in France) had died. The Treaty of Leith set up a
provisional government.
In August, the Scottish Parliament adopted a
confession of faith authored by John Knox and three others, abolished the
authority of the Pope, reduced the number of Sacraments to two, and authorized
the death penalty for anyone convicted three times of celebrating the Mass.
1561-72 During this period in France, Protestants were massacred on 18
occasions, and Catholics five times.
1561 Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland from France. John Knox
managed to meet with the queen several times, but their discussions were
fruitless. Mary remained firmly Catholic.
1561 English Roman Catholics set up a college at Douai (moved to Reims in
1571) from which they sent missionaries into England.
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1562 The Massacre of Vassy. The first French religious war (1562-63) began
when the Duke of Guise and his men were disturbed during mass in Vassy by the
psalm singing of Huguenots in a barn nearby. Guise killed 23 of them. By this
year, there were an estimated 2000 Huguenot (Calvinist) churches in France.
1562 In its twenty-second session, the Council of Trent decreed: “[I]n this
divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the mass, that same Christ is contained
and immolated in an unbloody manner who once offered himself in a bloody
manner on the altar of the cross ... [T]his sacrifice is truly propitiatory, and that
by means thereof this is effected: that we obtain mercy and find grace in
seasonable aid, if we draw nigh unto God, contrite and penitent ...”
1563 Elizabeth I, queen of England, proclaimed the 39 articles of religion. These
were the 42 articles of 1553 as edited by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of
Canterbury.
1563 John of the Cross (1542-91) became a Carmelite monk at Medina del
Campo in Spain. He wrote mystical poetry, describing the union of the soul with
Christ. Among his works are The Dark Night of the Soul and Ascent of Mount
Carmel.
1563 The Heidelburg Catechism, written the previous year as an attempt to
reconcile Lutheran and Calvinist positions, was accepted at a synod of the church
in the Palatinate.
1564 The Creed of the Council of Trent approved. It confessed acceptance of
tradition, and obligated the faithful to understand scripture “according to the
meaning which has been held by holy Mother Church and which she now holds.”
The seven sacraments are endorsed, and the mass is held to be a propitiatory
sacrifice in which the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and
blood, with “the whole and entire Christ ... received under each species.” Belief
in purgatory is mandated, as is veneration of the saints, their relics and images.
The power of indulgences within the Church is affirmed, and obedience to “the
Roman Pontiff” is sworn. Finally, a general affirmation of all the doctrines of the
church is made, all heresies are rejected, and the “infallible teaching authority”
of the “Roman Pontiff” is acknowledged.
1567 A professor at Louvain named Baius accused the Jesuits of Pelagianism.
His teaching was condemned by Pius V (1566-72).
1567/68 The second French religious war. Fearing Catholic aggression, the
Huguenots attempted unsuccessfully to capture the king (Charles IX, 1560-74)
and his mother. But the Huguenots did manage to seize the cities of Orleans and
La Rochelle.
1567 Eighty Catholics massacred by Huguenots at Nimes, France.
1567 On 24 July, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate, given the
suspicious circumstances of her husband Darnley’s death and her sudden
marriage to a man (Bothwell) suspected of his murder. Mary was replaced by
her son James VI, who was coronated at Stirling on 29 July. John Knox preached
the coronation sermon, signaling the success of Protestantism in Scotland.
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1568 The Bishop’s Bible published in England. It was read publicly in the
churches, though the Geneva Bible was more popular for private reading.
1568 Holland rose in revolt against Spain. This was the beginning of the Eighty
Years’ War (1568-1648). Germany, England, and French Huguenots assisted the
Dutch. The war was precipitated by Philip II’s introduction in 1559 of eleven new
bishoprics. At Philip’s urging, the holders of these sees were determined to root
out heresy, and they unleashed the Inquisition on the Low Countries. The
persecution set up a backlash: in 1566 Protestant mobs wrecked churches in a
number of cities, destroying statues, crucifixes, missals, and organs. In 1567,
Philip’s regent, Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, entered the territory
with an army of ten thousand men (and two thousand prostitutes). He cracked
down on the Protestants severely, forbidding emigration and arresting city
officials who failed tolerated Protestants.
Hundreds were imprisoned and
executed. William of Orange seized the opportunity to wage a war of
independence.
1568-70 The third French religious war. It ended when Charled IX signed a
peace treaty with the Huguenots, who were advancing on Paris.
1569 Ivan the Terrible (1533-84) had St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow,
strangled to death in prison for opposing his cruel methods. (An alternate
account states that Philip was burned alive.) Philip had refused to bless Ivan at a
liturgy in Moscow in 1568. He was canonized in 1652.
1570 The Turks invaded and conquered Cyprus. The bulk of the population were
Orthodox peasants enslaved by a Frankish ruling class. The Turks restored the
privileges and property of the Orthodox church, at the expense of the Latin
Catholics. They also transported Moslem immigrants from Anatolia to work
uninhabited land.
1570 Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I of England. His bull was entitled
“The Damnation and Excommunication of Elizabeth.” It also deposed her and
absolved her subjects from their oaths of allegiance to her.
1571 At the naval battle of Lepanto, a Venetian and Spanish fleet defeated the
Turks. This was largely revenge for the loss of Cyprus. The victory was
celebrated throughout western Europe and signaled the end of the myth of
Turkish invincibility. (Incidentally, Cervantes fought in this battle.)
1572 On January 12, a Scottish General Assembly re-introduced Episcopacy
(Prelacy) into Scotland. The fight against Prelacy was led by Andrew Melville.
1572/3 Major cities in Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland and Orange came out openly
in support of William of Orange. A group known as the Beggars of the Sea, in
league with William, seized 18 ships and took command of the Netherlands
coast. The brutality of Alva’s Spanish troops strengthened the resolve of the
Dutch rebels. From this time the northern Low Countries were effectively
independent of Philip II and Spain.
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1572 Huguenots assembled in Paris were slaughtered – the of St. Bartholomew’s
Day Massacre. Charles IX was under the influence of Coligny, a leader of the
Protestants, who urged him to support the Dutch war against Spain in hopes of
acquiring Flanders for France. The queen mother, Catherine, convinced her son
that the Protestants were about to kidnap him. Charles ordered the Huguenots
killed. About 2000 were murdered in Paris, and a further 5000 in the provinces.
Upon hearing of the massacre, the pope ordered a special medal to be produced
to order the Ugonotorum strages, or defeat of the Protestants.
He also
commissioned a painting of the massacre with the title Pontifex Colignii necem
probat, “The pope approves the killing of Coligny.”
1573 A delegation of Lutheran scholars from Tubingen visited Constantinople.
They provided Patriarch Jeremias II a Greek translation of the Augsburg
Confession. One of the Lutheran leaders, Martin Crusius, wrote, “If they wish to
take thought for the eternal salvation of their souls, they must join us and
embrace our teaching, or else perish eternally!” Jeremias provided an Orthodox
critique of the Augsburg Confession in 1576.
1576 Spanish mutineers in the war against the Dutch sacked Antwerp, killing
7000 citizens and setting a thousand buildings on fire.
1576-80 During this period, a Dominican named Bartolome de Medina taught
theology at the University of Salamanca. He formulated the casuistic theory of
probabilism, according to which absolution was to be offered to those who had
acted contrary to the opinion of most authorities if they had followed the opinion
of at least one doctor of the Church. This theory was employed by the Jesuits
and criticized for encouraging moral laxity. (Medina is also the inventor of the
patio process for extracting silver from ore.)
1577 The College of St. Athanasius was opened in Rome to train missionaries to
convert the Eastern Orthodox.
1577 The Formula of Concord written by Jakob Andrea and Martin Chemnitz.
The Formula, an interpretation of the Augsburg Confession, was an attempt to
reconcile the various branches of Lutheranism. Three years later, the Formula
was included in the Book of Concord, a collection of Lutheran doctrinal standards.
1579 In France the anonymous work Vindiciae contro tyrannos (A Vindication
against Tyrants) was published. It argued that a king, if he were a tyrant and
failed to uphold the natural law, could be deposed by magistrates or by a body
such as States-General.
1579 Alessandro Farnesse, Duke of Parma, sacked Maastricht.
people survived out of a population of 30,000.
Four hundred
1580-82 Though completed around the turn of the century, the complete
Slavonic Bible (known as the Ostrozhsky or Ostrong Bible because it was
published at the Ostrozhskii princes' printing house) was printed. See 1490
above.
1580/81 General Assemblies in Scotland condemned the Scottish Episcopacy.
James VI signed the Negative Confession, which abjured Popery.
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1581 Edmund Campion executed at Tyburn (now Marble Arch, Hyde Park). A
Jesuit missionary, Campion authored Decem rationes, a pamphlet opposing the
Anglican Church.
1582 Gregorian Calendar. Pope Gregory revised the calendar to keep the
calendar in sync with the seasons. Oct 5, 1582 became Oct 15. The revised
calendar was not adopted in England until 1752.
1584 William of Orange assassinated.
1584 Pope Gregory XIII founded the Maronite College in Rome. It was during
this century that the Maronites (see 684), who had been Monothelites in the
centuries immediately following the sixth ecumenical council, entered into
communion with Rome. [This last sentence is contradicted by the traditions of
the Maronites themselves, who hold they have always been “orthodox Christians
in union with the Roman see” - Britannica.]
1587 On 8 Feb, Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded. Mary had escaped from
Scotland to England in 1568, where she was held in confinement. She had been
implicated in a plan for a Spanish invasion of England (the Throckmorton plot,
1582) and the Babington plot (1586) to murder Elizabeth.
1587 The third printed edition of the Septuagint was published under the
sponsorship of Pope Sixtus V. Known as the Sixtine Septuagint, the text relies
heavily on Codex Vaticanus (B). Valpy’s edition of 1819 is based on the Sixtine;
Brenton, in turn, based his text (1851) on Valpy’s.
1588 The Jesuit Ramon de la Higuera claimed to have discovered lead tablets
proving that St. James the Apostle had come to Spain and attested to the truth
of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The spurious nature of the
supposed discoveries was proven by Dominican scholars.
Pope Urban VII
forbade Catholics from appealing to the tablets of Granada (Laminae
Granatenses) as evidence in 1639.
1588/89 Luis de Molina (1535-1600), a Jesuit philosopher and theologian,
published his "The Harmony of Free Will with the Gifts of Grace," an attempt to
comport divine justice and mercy, predestination and damnation, and grace and
human freedom. Molina held to a high view of human nature, emphasizing the
importance of the assent of the one who receives divine grace. He spoke of
predestination in terms of divine foreknowledge of works done under grace.
Molina's views incited a theological battle between the Dominicans and Jesuits,
which lasted for over 300 years.
1588 The Bible was translated into Welsh.
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Cardinal William Allen, founder of the
college at Douai which sent Jesuit missionaries into England, had urged English
Catholics to support the invading forces. He referred to Queen Elizabeth as
“begotten and born in sin of an infamous courtesan” and as the “chief spectacle
of sin and abomination in this age.”
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1589Russian Patriarchate. The head of the Russian church was raised in rank
from a Metropolitan to a Patriarch, receiving the fifth place in honor, after
Jerusalem.
1589 Henry of Navarre, heir to the throne of France and a Protestant, had
overcome Catholic forces and was in a position to take Paris. In the face of
Parisian opposition to having a Protestant king, Henry sent to the pope
requesting instruction in the Catholic faith. He was advised by the Duke of Sully
that “Paris is well worth a mass.”
1595 The secular clergy of the Sorbonne sent a petition to the Parlement of Paris
requesting that the Jesuits be expelled from France. The Parlement agreed to
their request. The Jesuits were agitating against the new king, Henry IV.
1596 The “Union” of Brest-Litovsk. Political, economic, and military pressure was
brought to bear on millions of Orthodox Christians living along the Western
borders of Russia, Byelorussia, and Ukraine, in order to force them to accept a
false union with the Roman Catholic Church. Six of the eight Orthodox bishops
of Ukraine voted in favor of union with Rome. There was a powerful backlash
among the laity.
Over the next century or so, Brotherhoods (Bratstva),
associations of laymen, were formed to combat Jesuit propaganda, obtaining
printing presses and publishing books in defense of Orthodoxy.
1598 The Edict of Nantes. The edict, issued by Henry IV, extended some
freedom to French Protestants. Protestant pastors were to be paid by the state,
and Protestants could maintain their strongholds for another eight years, also at
the king’s expence. However, Protestant worship was forbidden from extending
into Catholic areas. The edict was opposed by Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605).
1599 The first printing of an English Old Testament without the “Apocrypha” – a
Geneva Bible of 1599.
1600 Death of St. Basil of Mangazeya. Born of a poor family in 1587, Basil
traveled to Mangazeya in Siberia to become a merchant’s apprentice.
Unfortunately, the merchant pressured Basil to have homosexual relations with
him. Basil refused. Enraged, the merchant accused him of theft, and he was
arrested and tortured. The merchant himself struck Basil in the head with a set
of heavy iron keys and Basil fell dead. In 1652, Basil began appearing in dreams
to the local people, and he healed many. His coffin rose to the surface of the
ground. It was opened, and his body was found incorrupt.
The Seventeenth Century
1602 An Anglican named John Smyth renounced the episcopacy while speaking
at Lincoln Cathedral in England. He became pastor of a group of Separatists.
The congregation moved to Holland in 1606. Smyth defined the church as a
collection of baptized believers. He is thus the father of the modern baptist
movement.
1603 Henry IV allowed the Jesuits to re-enter France (see 1595).
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1604 The Hampton Court Conference (England) led to a revision of the Book of
Common Prayer and, in time, to the publication of the Authorized Version of the
Bible (1611). The conference, a meeting between the king (James I) and church
leaders, was in response to the Puritans’ Millenary Petition, a demand for church
reform. James refused the principal Puritan desire, the abolishment of the
episcopacy.
1605 On November 4, Guy Fawkes was arrested in a cellar beneath the House of
Lords’ meeting chamber. Fawkes and his fellow Catholic conspirators had placed
thiry casks of gunpowder in the cellar, and planned to blow Parliament up the
next day. The conspirators were motivated in part by King James’ 1604 renewal
of the Elizabethan anti-Catholic laws, which forbade Catholic teaching and
missionary activity and made attendance at Anglican services mandatory, with
severe penalties for disobedience.
1606 As a result of the conspiracy to destroy Parliament, harsh anti-Catholic
measures were passed in England. Catholics could not travel more than five
miles from their homes. No Catholic was allowed to act as a doctor, lawyer,
executor of an estate, or a guardian of minor children. Catholics were also
required to take a loyalty oath which denied that the pope had the power to
depose secular rulers. In this year, six Catholic priests were executed in England
for refusing to take the oath and for saying Mass.
1608 Formation of the Protestant Union (Union of Evangelical States) among
Protestant principalities within the Holy Roman Empire.
1609 Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria led the Catholic states within the Holy Roman
Empire in forming the Catholic Union.
1609 The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II signed a royal charter which
guaranteed freedom for Protestant worship within Bohemia. In 1618, fear that
this freedom would soon be lost led to the Thirty Years War.
1609 Death of Jacobus Arminius. For the last six years of his life, Arminius was a
professor at the University of Leiden (Holland). He had debated a colleague,
Franciscus Gomarus, over certain Calvinist doctrines. Arminius denied total
depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the
perseverance of the saints. The year after Arminius’ death, 45 Dutch ministers
signed the Remonstrance, a document in keeping with Arminius’ soteriology.
1609 A 12-year truce began in the Eighty Years War between Holland and Spain.
(See 1568.)
1609 The Douay-Rheims Bible published. The New Testament had appeared in
1582.
In this year, the first Baptist church on record was formed, by John Smyth in
Amsterdam. Baptist baptism was initially by pouring.
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1610 Francis de Sales, Roman Catholic bishop of Geneva, founded the Visitation
of Holy Mary (the Visitation Nuns). De Sales was an active missionary in
Chablais, winning the majority of people there from Calvinism back to
Catholicism. In 1877, he was named a doctor of the Roman Catholic church, the
first French writer to be so honored. He is reported to have said the following to
Marie Angelique, abbess of the Cistercian convent at Port Royal: “It is the duty
of ecumenical councils to reform the head and members: they are above the
pope. ... I know this, but prudence forbids my speaking of it, for I can hope for
no results if I did speak. We must weep and pray in secret that God will put His
hand to what man cannot, and we should humble ourselves to the ecclesiastical
powers under whom He has placed us, and beseech Him that He would convert
and humble them by the might of His Holy Spirit.”
1610 King James restored the episcopacy to the Scotland.
1611 The “King James” Version. The Authorized Version contained the books of
the Apocrypha between the testaments.
In this year, a portion of the Amsterdam baptist congregation returned to
England, led by Thomas Helwys, forming the first baptist congregation in
England. This group and others like it became known as General Baptists
because they believed the offer of salvation was open to all.
1612 The Russian Patriarch Hermogenes asked the priests of Kazan to send the
Kazan Mother of God icon to Moscow. After a ceremony involving the icon,
Prince Dmitry Pozharski’s warriors defeated the Poles who were assaulting the
city. Subsequently, much of Russia was recovered from Polish control.
1615 Archbishop George Abbot (Church of England) forbade the issuance of
Bibles without the Apocrypha.
1616 The Roman Catholic Church declared the Copernican theory, supported by
Galileo, as “false and erroneous.”
This was done in agreement with a
recommendation by Robert Bellarmine, who had met with Galileo and counselled
him to regard the heliocentric model of the solar system as a hypothesis only.
Bellarmine (1542-1621), a Jesuit, was a driving force behind the doctrine of
papal infallibility. He taught that the pope was infallible when teaching the whole
Church on faith, morals, and things necessary to salvation.
1618 The Thirty Years War began in Bohemia over the right of the diet to elect a
new king. King Matthias insisted that his nephew, the Ferdinand of Styria,
become king, but the diet preferred a Protestant. Ferdinand, educated by
Jesuits, had promised to suppress Protestantism within his domains. When
Matthias died in 1619, Ferdinand became emperor, but Bohemia had elected
Frederick of the Palatinate king of Bohemia.
1618/19 The Synod of Dort condemned the Remonstrants (Arminians – see
1609). This is not surprising, since all the delegates were Gomarists (followers
of Franciscus Gomarus).
1619Philaret, Patriarch of Moscow (1619-33). During this period, the Russian
church was reformed – service books were revised, moral standards were raised,
preaching was encouraged.
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1620 The founding of the Plymouth colony (Massachusetts) by English
Separatists who had lived in exile in Leiden, Holland.
1621 Protestantism was eradicated in Bohemia.
1622 In the Thirty Years War, Catholic forces under Johan Tserclaes, Count of
Tilly, sacked Heidelburg. The contents of the university were packed into wagons
and sent to Pope Gregory XV (1621-23) as a gift.
1623 Ukraine. Josaphat Kuntsevich killed by Orthodox worshippers. Kuntsevich
led a group to knock down the tents where the Orthodox were worshipping. One
of his followers struck a deacon, and the Orthodox, attacking Kuntsevich with
sticks and stones, beat him to death. He had ordered the disposal of dead
Orthodox by having their corpses exhumed and thrown to dogs, and had closed
and burned Orthodox churches. Kuntsevich was the Uniate bishop of Polotsky
and the founder of the Uniate Basilian order. He has been canonized by the
Roman Catholic Church.
1624 Cardinal Richelieu of France formed pacts with the Dutch, English, Swedes,
Danes, and with Savoy and Venice to contest Hapsburg power in the Low
Countries and Germany.
1624 Because of the words, “Textum ... ab omnibus receptum” appearing in the
preface, Elzevir’s Greek New Testament, published in this year, is called the
Textus Receptus, or the Received Text.
1627 The Patriarch of Constantinople presented an uncial manuscript, known as
Codex Alexandrinus (A) to King Charles I of England. Alexandrinus is considered
to reflect the Byzantine text type in the gospels, but the Alexandrian text in the
rest of the New Testament. It also contains the Septuagint.
1628 French Catholic forces led by Richelieu took La Rochelle, the last Huguenot
fortified city.
1629Cyril Lukaris, Patriarch of Constantinople, had endorsed a thoroughly
Calvinistic theology. His Confession was published in Geneva in this year. Cyril
had been present at the synod of Brest in 1596 and, perhaps as a consequence,
had a thorough hostility to Rome. Cyril’s Confession was condemned by six
councils between 1638 and 1691.
1629 The Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution,
which required “all archbishoprics, bishoprics, prelacies, monasteries, and other
ecclesiastical property confiscated since” 1552 be restored to the Catholic
Church. The edict was promulgated at a point in the Thirty Years War when
Catholic forces under Wallenstein dominated Germany.
1631 Catholic forces razed Magdeburg, which was resisting the Edict of
Restitution (1629). 17,000 of the city’s 36,000 inhabitants were killed.
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1631 Brandenburg and Saxony allied themselves with Sweden. (Swedish forces
under King Gustavus Adolphus had arrived in Pomerania in 1630.) The combined
Protestant armies defeated Tilly near Leipzig in the first major Protestant victory
of the Thirty Years War.
1632 Compromise of 1632. Many formerly Uniate churches and monasteries in
Ukraine returned to Orthodoxy.
1633 William Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury and began to persecute
Puritans.
1633 Galileo Galilei tried in Rome on suspicion of heresy for supporting the
Copernican (sun-centered) view of the solar system.
1634 Pope Urban VIII’s (1623-44) bull ended the ancient practice by which local
bishops and synods introduced commemorations into the calendar.
The
authority to do so, and to canonize saints, was restricted to the papal curia.
1636 Jean du Vergier de Hauranne, known as M. de St. Cryan, abbot of St. Cyran
in the diocese of Poitiers, became director of the nunnery at Port Royal. A friend
of Cornelius Jansen (see 640), St. Cyran intended the nunnery to be a center for
opposition to the Jesuit’s teachings on doctrine, devotion and morals.
1638 A group of baptists holding a Calvinist theology which strictly limited
salvation to the elect is known to have existed in London by this year. They
became known as Particular Baptists.
1637 Rioting broke out in Scotland when a new liturgy was read in Edinburg.
The new Scottish prayer book had been prepared by the Scottish bishops.
1638 On 28 Feb the Scottish National Covenant was signed. King Charles I and
Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud had ordered the exclusive use of a
“Papistical” liturgy upon the Church of Scotland, known as Laud’s Liturgy (see
1637). The National Covenant repeated the Negative Confession of 1580/81 and
listed many acts of parliament that the new liturgy was perceived to contradict.
The Covenant’s subscribers swore to forbear “the practice of all novations … till
they be tried and allowed in free Assemblies and Parliaments” while still
supporting the king’s authority “in the defense and preservation of the foresaid
true religion.”
1639/40 Charles I attempted to put down the Scottish rebellion, and conflict
between England and Scotland in these years are known as the Bishops’ Wars.
The Scottish success, their seizure of Northumberland and Durham, forced
Charles to call the Long Parliament in 1640, which lead to the English Civil War.
1639 Roger Williams founded the first baptist congregation in America, in Rhode
Island.
1639 Jean Morin (see 1645, Samaritan Penteteuch) was consulted by Urban VIII
on relations with the Orthodox Church. Based on his patristic studies, Morin
supported Roman Catholic recognition of the Orthodox priesthood.
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1639 The Battle of the Downs. In an attempt to regain control over Dutch ports,
a Spanish armada of 77 ships sailed into the English Channel. A Dutch force of
75 ships engaged them and disabled, captured or destroyed all but seven of the
Spanish vessels.
1640 Cornelius Jansen’s Augustinus published posthumously. Jansen, the bishop
of Ypres, had died of the plague in 1638. It is claimed that he had read
Augustine through twenty times. The Augustinus was to become a source of
conflict between the Jansenists and the Jesuits in seventeenth century France.
1642 English civil war began. The first battle was fought at Edgefield.
1642 Pope Urban VIII launched the War of Castro against Duke Odoardo I
Farnese of Parma. His goal was to dominate northern Italy, but the pope was
defeated in March 1644.
1642Council of Jassy (Iasi) in Romania. This council of the Eastern Orthodox
church confirmed as “genuine parts of scripture” 1 Esdras (3 Esdras in the
Vulgate), Tobit, Judith, three books of the Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus
(Ben Sira), Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah. The canonicity of these books
had been previously taken for granted.
The council also revised and approved the Orthodox Confession of Peter of
Moghila, Patriarch of Kiev from 1633-47. The original version had been based on
Roman Catholic manuals and, consequently, contained doctrinal error. The
revision was the work of Meletius Syrigos, a Greek, who corrected Moghila’s
teachings in favor of purgatory and the change in the eucharistic bread and wine
at the ‘words of institution.’
1643 Antoine Arnauld published his De la frequente communion his Theologie
morale des Jesuites, against the Jesuits’ practice of frequent communion and
their perceived moral laxity. Arnauld had come across a letter from a Jesuit that
read, in part, “The more one is destitute of grace, the more one ought boldly to
approach Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.”
1643 Pope Urban VIII issued his bull In eminente, which condemned Jansenism.
1643 In the battle with the king, the English parliament enlisted the aid of the
Scots. The resulting treaty, known as “The Solemn League and Covenant,”
emphasized the preservation of the Reformed faith in England and Ireland and
the elimination of Popery and Prelacy.
1644The English Puritan parliament forbade the observance of all holy days and
the keeping of Christmas day as a solemn fast. The law required everyone to go
to work on that day, and a shopkeeper whose shop was closed on that day was
liable to prosecution. The Puritans reasoned that Christmas was of pagan origin,
and thus unworthy of celebration.
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1645 The Samaritan Pentateuch, recently recovered by a traveler to the East,
was published in the “Paris Polyglot.” It had been lost to history since the eighth
century. A Samarian version of the Law, the Samaritan Pentateuch frequently
supports Septuagint readings against the Masoretic text. This indicates that the
Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint may have had a common origin prior
to the fixing of the Masoretic text in the first or second centuries. Jean Morin, a
Catholic priest, convert from Calvinism, and editor of the Samaritan Penteteuch
which appeared in the Paris Polyglot, advocated the theory that the Septuagint
was superior to the Hebrew Masoretic text.
1645 The Long Parliament proscribed use of the 1552 English Book of Common
Prayer, replacing it with the Directory for the Public Worship of God in the Three
Kingdoms.
1646 The three estates of Portugal bound themselves to defend, if need be with
their lives, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
1648 The Westminster Confession approved by the English Parliament. It had
been accepted by the Church of Scotland the previous year.
1648The Thirty Years War ended with the peace of Westphalia.
1649 King Charles I of England beheaded.
1650 The Quaker movement began about this year in England’s Lake District.
George Fox was one early leader.
1652/3 Nikon (1605-81) became Patriarch of Russia. He attempted to bring
Russian practice into line with the worship of the four ancient patriarchates. He
wished to modify the service books and introduce the practice of making the sign
of the cross with three fingers, instead of in the older manner with just two
fingers. His reforms were widely opposed. Those who rejected his reforms were
called Raskolniki (which means sectarians), or Old Believers. This division has
continued until the present.
1653 Avvakum, former chaplain to the tsar, exiled to Siberia. Avvakum had
become the leader of the Old Believers. He was burned at the stake in 1682.
During his imprisonment, he wrote (1673) his autobiography, the first such work
in the Russian language.
1653 Pope Innocent X (1644-55), in the bull Cum occasione, condemned the Five
Propositions. He stated that these had been held by Jansen, and he implied they
were found in Jansen’s Augustinus.
The Five Propositions are (1) some
commandments of God are impossible even for righteous persons to keep, (2) in
the fallen state internal grace is never resisted, (3) in order to merit or demerit
in a state of fallen nature, freedom from necessity [the necessity imposed by
God’s irresistible grace] is not required, only freedom from constraint, (4) the
heresy of the Pelagians consisted in their assertion that grace could be either
resisted or obeyed, and (5) it is a Semi-Pelagian error to say that Christ died or
shed His blood for all men absolutely.
1656-57 Blaise Pascal published his Provincial Letters, a defense of the
Jansenists and satirical attack on the Jesuits in France.
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1658 Death of the Protestant theologian Louis Cappelle. His arguments in favor
of the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch against the Masoretic Text
angered many. In reaction, the Swiss Reformed Church accepted the inspiration
of not only the consonantal Hebrew text, but the vowel points as well!
1660 England recalled Charles II to England to become king: the Restoration.
1660 Savoy Conference. A conference was held at the Savoy Palace between
Anglicans and Presbyterians to discuss ways in which the English Prayer Book,
proscribed since 1645, could be made acceptable to the Presbyterians and other
moderate Puritans.
1661 King Louis XIV of France demanded that all French bishops subscribe to the
Formulary of 1656. The nuns of Port Royal were required to sign also, but they
refused and were excommunicated.
1662 In Britain ‘An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers’ which imposed a
revised Prayer Book on the country.
1664 The Virgin Mary reportedly appeared to Benoit Rencurel, a seventeen-yearold shepherdess near Grenoble in the French Alps. Mary told her to go to Le
Laus, where she would frequently appear in a ruined chapel. She also predicted
that the chapel would one day be encompassed by a great church.
1666/7 A council was held in Moscow, presided over by the Patriarchs of
Alexandria and Antioch. Nikon had attempted to control the state as well as the
church. The council deposed Nikon, but upheld his reforms.
1669 The Peace of the Church ratified by Pope Clement IX (1667-70). The
Jansenist bishops of France were allowed to provide explanations for their
signatures to the Formulary of 1656, though these could not be published.
Persecution ceased. The excommunication of the nuns of Port Royal was lifted.
1669 Death of the Vatican librarian Leo Allatius. His three-volume work, De
ecclesia occidentalis atque orientalis perpetua consensione argued that the
Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches were not genuinely separated, nor were
the Orthodox in heresy.
1672The Eastern Orthodox council of Jerusalem. This council ratified Dositheus’
Confession, an answer to Cyril Lukaris’ work of the same name. Like Peter
Moghila’s work, Dositheus’ Confession has a Western tone. He adopted the term
‘transubstantiation,’ and he came very near to endorsing purgatory.
The
Confession explicitly lists Wisdom, Judith, Tobit, The History of the Dragon,
Susanna, Maccabees, and Sirach as “genuine parts of Scripture.” Dositheus was
Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1699-1707. The Confession’s decrees summarized:
1. Affirms belief in the Trinity, “the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father.”
2. States that the Holy Spirit is the author of both the Scriptures and the
Catholic Church, and that both are “infallible” and have “perpetual authority.”
3. Denies the doctrine that predestination is based on God’s will alone. Instead,
“since He foreknew the one would make a right use of their free-will, and the
other a wrong, He predestinated the one, and condemned the other.”
4. States that the tri-personal God did not create evil.
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5. Affirms that in the providence of God, He may bring good from evil.
6. Denies that hereditary sin, inherited from Adam, is any actual sin, “but only
what the Divine Justice inflicted upon man as a punishment for the (original)
transgression, such as sweats in labor, afflictions, bodily sicknesses, pains in
child-bearing, and in fine, while on our pilgrimage, to live a laborious life, and
lastly, bodily death.”
7. Affirms that the Son of God emptied Himself and took on flesh in the womb of
the Virgin Mary, was born without injury to her virginity or any labor pains, rose
from the dead, and ascended into heaven.
8. States that although Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man,
the saints, particularly the Mother of God, are intercessors.
9. Defines faith as “the right notion that is in us concerning God and divine
things, which, working by love, that is to say, by (observing) the Divine
commandments, justifies us with Christ; and without this (faith) it is impossible
to please God.”
10. Distinguishes the Church still in its pilgrimage on earth (the Church militant)
from that already in heaven (the Church triumphant), and stresses the dignity of
the bishops and their apostolic succession.
11. Indicates that the members of the Church are those who, though they may
be guilty of sin, “cleave to the Catholic and Orthodox faith.”
12. Affirms that the Holy Spirit guides the Church though her Fathers and
leaders, and that “it is impossible for the Catholic Church to err, or at all be
deceived, or ever to choose falsehood instead of truth.”
13. “We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but
through faith which works through love, that is to say, through faith and works.
But [the notion] that faith fulfilling the function of a hand lays hold on the
righteousness which is in Christ, and applies it to us for salvation, we know to be
far from all Orthodoxy. ... But we regard works not as witnesses certifying our
calling, but as being fruits in themselves, through which faith becomes
efficacious, and as in themselves meriting, through the Divine promises, that
each of the faithful may receive what is done through his own body, whether it is
good or bad.”
14. Denies that unregenerate man is totally depraved. He is capable of moral
good, but cannot perform spiritual good, “the works of the believer ...
contributory to salvation and wrought by supernatural grace.”
15.
Affirms that there are seven sacraments - Baptism, Confirmation,
Ordination, the Eucharist, Marriage, Penance, and Holy Oil - and that these are
means of grace and that their integrity is not impaired by weakness of faith in
the recipients.
16. Argues that infants should be baptized, affirms that baptism effects the
remission of sins, delivers from eternal punishment, and gives immortality, and
denies that baptism can be received twice.
17. Affirms transubstantiation, and, consequently, the real absence of the
substance of the bread and wine; that the body and blood are to be honored and
adored; that the liturgy is “a true and propitiatory sacrifice for all Orthodox,
living and dead;” and that no one can perform the mystery of the Eucharist
except an Orthodox priest.
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18. States that the dead are in either rest or torment. Those in torment in
Hades include the damned and “such as though involved in mortal sins have not
departed in despair, but have ... repented ... endure the punishment due to the
sins they have committed. But they are aware of their future release from
thence ... before the common resurrection and judgment.”
After the
resurrection, the damned will be condemned, and both those who had repented
but suffered in Hades and those who died free of mortal sin will receive the
completion of enjoyment.
1675 While imprisoned during this year, John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s
Progress. It was first published in 1678.
1682 Peter the Great (1682-1725), Tsar of Russia.
1682 The Assembly of the French clergy issued the Four Gallican Articles: (1)
popes, whose power is entirely spiritual, cannot release subjects from oaths of
loyalty to kings and rulers; (2) the plenitude of power enjoyed by popes is
limited by the decrees of the 4th and 5th sessions of the Council of Constance;
(3) the pope must exercise his authority in accordance with “the canons enacted
by the Spirit of God and consecrated by the reverence of the whole world,” so
that the pope cannot alter the “ancient rules, customs, and institutions” of the
French church; and (4) though the pope has the principal place in deciding issues
of faith, his decisions are not irreversible until confirmed by the consent of the
Church.
1683The Turks besieged Vienna for the last time. They were chopped to bits by a
relief force of Poles. The reputation of the Turks as a conquering nation was lost.
1685Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the subsequent emigration of an
estimated 400,000 Huguenots. Pope Innocent XI (1676-89) is said to have
disapproved of the revocation privately. In public, he ordered a Te Deum and
public celebrations.
1686 Christian forces wrested the city of Buda from the Turks. Hungary was free
of Turkish rule for the first time since 1526.
1686 The metropolitan of Kiev passed from the control of Constantinople to that
of Moscow.
1689Glorious Revolution. In the face of James II’s production of a Roman
Catholic heir, William of Orange and Mary II were proclaimed king and queen of
England and Scotland. Four hundred English and Scottish bishops refused to
swear allegiance to William and Mary and continued to remain faithful to James
II. These dissenting bishops came to be known as Nonjurors.
1690 The Episcopal Church disestablished in Scotland.
1700 Patriarch Adrian died, and Tsar Peter did not allow a replacement.
1700 By this year, J. J. Scalinger had refuted the notion that all other languages
derive from Hebrew.
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The Eighteenth Century
1705 Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) issued the bull Vineam Domini Sabaoth,
annuling the Peace of the Church (see 1669) in France by requiring subscription
to the Formulary of 1656 without qualification.
1707 The first volume of Grabe’s Septuagint was published. The fourth and last
volume appeared in 1720. Grabe’s Septuagint is based on Codex Alexandrinus
(A). Contrast this with the Sixtine Edition of 1587, which depends on Vaticanus.
Some believe that Codex A reflects Origen's recension of the Septuagint, at least
to an extent.
1708 Pope Clement XI (1700-1721), to avoid commiting himself to the doctrine
of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, ordered a festival called for the Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary immaculate.
1709 Having refused to submit to the bull Vineam Domini Sabaoth, the nuns of
Port Royal were excommunicated, then dispersed to other convents.
The
convent was leveled, and corpses in the graveyard were dug up and thrown into
a single pit in the cemetary of St. Lambert. This event signals the victory of the
Jesuits over the Jansenist movement.
1713 Pope Clement XI issued the bull Unigenitus, condemning Jansenism and the
proposition that “The reading of Sacred Scripture is for all.” It also condemned
the error that “The Lord’s Day ought to be sanctified by Christians with readings
of pious works and above all of the Holy Scriptures. It is harmful for a Christian
to wish to withdraw from this reading.” The bull was very unpopular in France,
where an edition of the gospels with Jansenist notes had been published. The
Emperor of Austria forbade the distribution of Unigenitus. This bull was used in
Sicilian seminaries as an example of the fallibility of Popes. In France, the
Gallicans opposed the bull on the grounds that the pope had no right to impose a
doctrine on the French church without the consent of the French bishops and
without the agreement of a General Council.
1716 Between this year and 1724 a dialogue was conducted between the English
non-Jurors (who refused to swear allegiance to William of Orange) and the
Orthodox, in hopes of establishing communion. The non-Jurors were troubled by
the Orthodox doctrine of the real presence, veneration of Mary, the saints, and
the Holy Icons, and the interchange was suspended.
1721 Tsar Peter the Great declared the Moscow Patriarchate to be abolished,
and set up the Spiritual College or Holy Synod to replace it. Peter’s Spiritual
Regulation, which established the Holy Synod, viewed the church as an arm of
the state, not as a spiritual institution.
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1722 At a council held in Constantinople this year, an Orthodox council made the
following pronouncement regarding the state of the dead and the existence of
purgatory: “[W]e the godly, following the truth and turning away from such
innovations, confess and accept two places for the souls of the dead, paradise
and hell, for the righteous and sinners, as the holy Scripture teaches us. We do
not accept a third place, a purgatory, by any means, since neither Scripture nor
the holy Fathers have taught us any such thing. However, we believe these two
places have many abodes ... None of the teachers of the Church have handed
down or taught such a purgatory, but they all speak of one single place of
punishment, hades, just as they teach about one luminous and bright place,
paradise. But both the souls of the holy and the righteous go indisputably to
paradise and those of the sinners go to hades, of whom the profane and those
who have sinned unforgivably are punished forever and those who have offended
forgivably and moderately hope to gain freedom through the unspeakable mercy
of God. For on behalf of such souls, that is of the moderately and forgivably
sinful, there are in the Church prayers, supplications, liturgies, as well as
memorial services and almsgiving, that those souls may receive favor and
comfort. Thus when the Church prays for the souls of those who are lying
asleep, we hope there will be comfort for them from God, but not through fire
and purgatory, but through divine love for mankind, whereby the infinite
goodness of God is seen.” This from an encyclical to the church in Antioch.
1723 The four ancient Patriarchates recognized the termination
Patriarchate of Moscow and the establishment of the Holy Synod.
of
the
1724 Creation of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from the Antiochian Orthodox
Church. Upon the death of Patriarch Athanasios III Debbas, two rival parties
within the Church supported different candidates.
The pro-Roman party,
centered in Damascus, elected Cyril VI patriarch, while those opposed to union
with Rome, whose power base was centered in Aleppo, supported a Cypriot
monk, Sylvester, whom Athanasios had designated to be his successor.
Constantinople and the Ottoman government recognized Sylvester. In 1728,
Cyril's election was recognized by Pope Benedict XIII. Roughly one-third of the
Orthodox followed Cyril into schism.
1738 The Anglican priest John Wesley, and his brother Charles, both reported
conversion experiences. Working with George Whitfield, the Wesleys began the
Methodist Revival within the Church of England. The Methodists split from the
Anglicans in 1795.
1740 Ludovica Antonio Muratori published a late second century list of New
Testament scriptures, the Muratorian Canon. See year 200 above.
1741 Elizabeth (1741-62) ruled Russia.
lands.
She confiscated most of the monastic
1744 Publication of Rattay’s The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem. This
work was influential in the 1764 revision of the Scottish Communion Service
(based on Laud’s 1637 liturgy and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer). The 1764
Scottish Communion Service in turn formed the basis of the service used in the
Episcopal Church in the US after the American War of Independence (see 1789).
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1752 The Gregorian calendar was adopted in England. The calendar was adrift
by 12 days (it had been only 10 days off in 1582). To accommodate the change,
Christmas Day 1782 became Epiphany, 1783. Common people complained that
they had been robbed of 12 days of their lives. Epiphany came to be called “Old
Christmas.”
1755 Anti-Roman feelings had become quite strong in the Middle East. The
Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Jerusalem declared Roman Catholic
baptism invalid, and ordered the rebaptism of converts.
1762 Reign of Catherine II (1762-96) in Russia.
monasteries and limited the number of monks.
She closed about half the
1763 St. Paissy Velichkovsky became abbot of the monastery of Niamets in
Romania. He turned it into a great spiritual center, translating the works of the
Greek fathers into Slavonic. From Niamets monastic revival spread into Russia.
Also, a Slavonic translation of the Philokalia (see 1782) was made, and published
in Moscow in 1793.
1764 St. Makarios (1731-1805) became Archbishop of Corinth. Due to Turkish
rule, most children were not being given an education. Makarios built public
schools in his diocese and published books. He also corrected church practices
and theology.
1770+ Twelve hundred Kiev-region Uniate churches returned to Orthodoxy.
1773 Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuit order.
1774 The British Parliament protected the rights of Roman Catholics in Canada
with the Quebec Act.
1779 St. Kosmas the Aetolian (1714-79) executed by Turkish authorities. Under
Turkish rule, cultural and religious life in Greece was dying. St. Kosmas
preached the faith in Greece rather after a Wesleyan fashion, traveling
throughout the country. Seeing the Orthodox faith and Greek language as
inextricably connected, St. Kosmas also founded many Greek schools.
John Murray founded the first Universalist Church, in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
1782 The Philokalia, an anthology of ascetic and mystical texts from the fourth to
the fifteenth century, was published in Vienna. It was compiled by St. Macarius,
Metropolitan of Corinth, and St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain.
1783 The Treaty of Versailles ended the American war of independence.
1784 Dr. Samuel Seabury consecrated bishop at Aberdeen, Scotland. He then
returned to Connecticut to lead Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA.
1786 Sir William James proposed the hypothesis that Sanscrit, Latin, Greek,
Germanic, and Celtic were all derived form a dead Indo-European original.
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1788 The “Protestation of the English Catholics” was signed by the vicars-general
and practically all Catholic clergy and laity of note. It attested to Parliament that
“we acknowledge no infallibility of the Pope.” This statement was instrumental in
the passage of the Relief Act in 1790.
1789 The first official prayer book of the Episcopal Church in the US issued. The
Communion Service was based on the 1764 Scottish service. (See 1744.)
1790 The French Assembly nationalized Church lands.
department of the state and clergy, state officials.
The Church became a
1793 On January 21, Louis XVI, king of France, beheaded.
1793/5 Twenty-three hundred Uniate churches returned to Orthodoxy under
Catherine the Great (1762-96).
1794 Publication of Richard Brothers’ A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies
and Times. Brothers announced that the world would be destroyed in 1795. He
claimed to be the heir of king David and stated that the Jews would be restored
to Palestine in 1798, with himself as their ruler. Brothers ended his days in
confinement as a lunatic.
1796 The Uniate Metropolitanate of Kiev ceased to exist.
1797 As a result of Bonaparte's invasion of Italy, the Pope signed the treaty of
Tolentino, by which he surrendered Bologna and Tolentino.
1798 The Pope was forced into exile from Rome by French troops.
Premillenialists saw this as a fulfillment of prophecies of the 1260 days of the
reign of "the Beast," dating the rise of the papacy to 538.
1800 Orthodox influence in the Holy Land began a dramatic rise in this period.
Latin monks were lamenting that the Church of the Nativity had been in Greek
hands for forty or fifty years. A steady flow of financial aid and pilgrims
streamed into the Holy Land from Russia.
The Nineteenth Century
1802 Georg Friderich Grotefend decifered the cuneiform writing of ancient
Sumeria.
1804Alexis Khomiakov (1804-60) born. Khomiakov looked to Orthodox sources
for theology, rather than employing Roman Catholic arguments against
Protestants and vice versa.
1808St. Nikita the Albanian martyred. In Serres, Nikita went to the Church of
Divine Wisdom, which the Moslems had turned into a mosque. He met a cripple,
and told him he would be healed if he believed in Jesus and was baptized. The
cripple told the chief teacher of the mosque, who turned him over to the
authorities.
Nikita was tortured in prison, then hanged.
His relics have
performed many miracles.
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1809 Members of Thomas Campbell's Christian Association of Washington,
Pennsylvania, formed a church under the pastorship of Thomas' son, Alexander.
Working with Walter Scott, who developed a five-step plan of salvation, and with
Barton Stone, who pushed a simple and non-creedal form of Christianity,
Alexander Campbell began the “Restoration Movement.” Groups that derive from
this origin include the Disciples of Christ, the Churches of Christ, and the
Christian Churches.
1812 Napoleon’s French Grand Army invaded Russia. When Napoleon reached
Moscow, the city was in flames. On October the 19th, the Grand Army began its
retreat.
1814 Abdication of Napoleon and his exile to Elba. In 1815, he returned, but
was defeated and sent as a prisoner to the island of St. Helena.
1815St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833) turned from a life of seclusion and
began to receive visitors, providing advice and healing the sick. Holy men such
as this are called as startsy in Russia.
1819 A council at Constantinople endorsed the standpoint of the Kollyvades.
This was a movement against the influence of the Western Enlightenment in
Greece. The Kollyvades endorsed the study of the church fathers and Orthodox
liturgical life, along with frequent communion.
After William Ellery Channing’s sermon “Unitarian Christianity” in this year, many
New England congregationalist bodies became Unitarian.
1820 Joseph Smith had a vision in Palmyra, New York, which led to the founding
of the Mormon religion. The first congregation of Mormons was formed in 1830.
Smith himself was killed in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. Under the leadership of
Brigham Young, his followers arrived in Utah in 1847.
1822 The Vicar Apostolic in England, Bishop Baines, wrote that “Bellarmine and
some other divines, chiefly Italians, have believed the Pope infallible, when
proposing ex cathedra an article of faith. But in England or Ireland I do not
believe that any Catholic maintains the infallibility of the Pope.”
1826 Thirty Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops in Ireland signed a
declaration that “The Catholics of Ireland declare on oath their belief that it is not
an article of the Catholic faith, neither are they required to believe that the pope
is infallible.” They presented testimony before a committee of the English
Parliament that they and their congregations rejected both papal infallibility and
the notion that the bishop of Rome could relieve subjects from their civil
allegiance. As a result, the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act of 1827 was
enacted.
1827The British and Foreign Bible Society resolved never to print or distribute
Bibles containing the Apocrypha. Prior to this time, the Authorized Version had
been printed without these books, but from this year copies with the Apocrypha
became even more rare.
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1827 An Anglican priest named John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) concluded that
the visible church was apostate. He began to meet with others, the group
eventually becoming known as the Plymouth Brethren. Darby taught a radical
distinction between Israel and the church, which laid the seed for dispensational
premillenialism, popularized by the notes in the Scofield Reference Bible.
1829St. John of Kronstadt (1829-1908) born. Like St. Seraphim or Sarov, he
possessed the gifts of spiritual insight and healing.
1830 Greece liberated from Turkish rule.
1830 A twenty-four year old nun named Catherine Laboure in a convent of the
Sisters of Charity in Paris reportedly saw a vision of the Virgin Mary. Mary
appeared to her standing on a half-globe with a globe topped with a cross in her
hands. She commanded Catherine to have a medal struck after the model of the
image she had seen. The medal, first produced in 1832, came to be known as
the Miraculous Medal.
1839 The Marquis de Custine visited Russia. While there, he recorded his
observations in a series of letters. These letters provide insight into one
nineteenth century Westerner’s blindness toward the central message of
Orthodox spirituality:
The Marquis de Custine depicts a Russian prince as attributing Russia's
backwardness to the fact that it successfully resisted conquest by the Teutonic
Knights: “Think at each step you take in this land of Asiatic people that the
influence of chivalry and Catholicism has been missed by the Russians.”
Later, he himself opines: “Separated from the Occident by its adhesion to the
Greek schism, Russia has come back after many centuries, with the
inconsistency of a disillusioned self-esteem, to ask from the nations formed by
Catholicism the civilization that she has been deprived of by an entirely political
religion. This Byzantine religion, issued from a palace to help maintain order in a
camp, does not satisfy the most sublime needs of the human soul; it helps the
police deceive the nation - that is all. It has made these people unworthy of the
degree of culture to which they aspire.” The reader is left wondering if de
Custine thought of religion solely as a tool for the improvement of civilization.
He was plainly oblivious to Orthodox spirituality.
1839 The Uniate Church in Ukraine abolished. Clergy who refused to re-unite to
Orthodoxy (593 of 1898) were exiled to Siberia or the Russian interior.
Eventually, Uniates existed only in Austrian-controlled areas of Ukraine (Galicia).
Known as the Reunion of Polotsk, Greek Catholic dioceses in Lithuania and
Belarus also re-entered the Orthodox Church in this year, led by Iosif Semashko,
bishop of Lithuania.
1839 The first French diocese to drop its local breviary in favor of the Roman,
Langres, did so in this year. Orleans was the last, in 1875.
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1840 John Wilson’s Lectures on Our Israelitish Origin published. Wilson is
regarded as the founder of the British-Israelite movement, which relies on the
notion that the British are descended from one or more of the ten lost tribes of
Israel. The influence of British Israelitism peaked around 1900 with perhaps
2,000,000 believers worldwide.
1843 A baptist pastor from Vermont named William Miller calculated that Christ's
second coming would occur this year. He later revised the date to 1844. The
Seventh Day Adventist church rose from these false predictions.
1846 Two children (Melanie Mathieu (14) and Maximin Giraud (11)) herding
cattle near La Salette, France, reportedly saw a vision of a lady dressed in white
who predicted crop failures and disease in the area if people failed to attend
mass regularly and to cease using Jesus’ name as a curse. Subsequently, crops
did fail, and cholera struck many children in the region.
1846-60
Keenan’s Catechism was popular in Britain during this period.
Approved for use by four Roman Catholic bishops, to the question, “Must not all
Catholics believe the Pope in himself to be infallible?” the response is, “This is a
Protestant invention: it is no article of the Catholic faith; no decision of his can
oblige, under pain of heresy, unless it be received and enforced by the teaching
body; that is, by the bishops of the Church.”
1847 A professor of dogmatic theology in the Collegium Romanum, Giovanni
Perrone, argued in a book published this year that dogmas could be defined even
if they lacked direct evidence in both Scripture and written tradition. It was only
requisite that the dogmas exist as a secret tradition in the consciousness of
believers. Pope Pius IX set up a commission to examine Perrone’s theory. The
commission concluded that Tradition alone was sufficient to establish a doctrine,
and that “the existence of a Catholic tradition was proved when the general
agreement of the Church at any period could be verified, or when a certain
number of decisive pieces of evidence which presume it could be produced.”
Thus the ground was prepared for the Bull Ineffabilis Deus, issued in 1854.
1848 Pius IX (1846-78) sent an encyclical to the Eastern Churches in an attempt
to corrupt them from the Orthodox faith. Selections from the Eastern Patriarchs’
response:
“Of these heresies diffused, with what sufferings the LORD hath known, over a
great part of the world, was formerly Arianism, and at present is the Papacy.
This, too, as the former has become extinct, although now flourishing, shall not
endure, but pass away and be cast down, and a great voice from heaven shall
cry: It is cast down (Rev. xii. 10).”
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“Some of the Bishops of that City, styled Popes, for example Leo III and John
VIII, did indeed, as has been said, denounce the innovation, and published the
denunciation to the world, the former by those silver plates, the latter by his
letter to the holy Photius at the eighth Ecumenical Council, and another to
Sphendopulcrus, by the hands of Methodius, Bishop of Moravia. The greater part,
however, of their successors, the Popes of Rome, enticed by the antisynodical
privileges offered them for the oppression of the Churches of God, and finding in
them much worldly advantage, and ‘much gain,’ and conceiving a Monarchy in
the Catholic Church and a monopoly of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, changed the
ancient worship at will, separating themselves by novelties from the old received
Christian Polity. Nor did they cease their endeavors, by lawless projects (as
veritable history assures us), to entice the other four Patriarchates into their
apostasy from Orthodoxy, and so subject the Catholic Church to the whims and
ordinances of men.”
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“The Throne of Rome is esteemed that of St. Peter by a single tradition, but not
from Holy Scripture, where the claim is in favor of Antioch, whose Church is
therefore witnessed by the great Basil (Ep. 48 Athan.) to be ‘the most venerable
of all the Churches in the world.’ Still more, the second Ecumenical Council,
writing to a Council of the West (to the most honorable and religious brethren
and fellow-servants, Damasus, Ambrose, Britto, Valerian, and others),
witnesseth, saying: ‘The oldest and truly Apostolic Church of Antioch, in Syria,
where first the honored name of Christians was used.’ We say then that the
Apostolic Church of Antioch had no right of exemption from being judged
according to divine Scripture and synodical declarations, though truly venerated
for the throne of St. Peter. But what do we say? The blessed Peter, even in his
own person, was judged before all for the truth of the Gospel, and, as Scripture
declares, was found blamable and not walking uprightly. What opinion is to be
formed of those who glory and pride themselves solely in the possession of his
Throne, so great in their eyes? Nay, the sublime Basil the great, the Ecumenical
teacher of Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, to whom the Bishops of Rome are
obliged to refer us (p. 8, 1.31), has clearly and explicitly above (§ 7) shown us
what estimation we ought to have of the judgments of the inaccessible Vatican:
— ‘They neither,’ he says, ‘know the truth, nor endure to learn it, striving against
those who tell them the truth, and strengthening themselves in their heresy.’ So
that these our holy Fathers whom his Holiness the Pope, worthily admiring as
lights and teachers even of the West, accounts as belonging to us, and advises
us (p. 8) to follow, teach us not to judge Orthodoxy from the holy Throne, but
the Throne itself and him that is on the Throne by the sacred Scriptures, by
Synodical decrees and limitations, and by the Faith which has been preached,
even the Orthodoxy of continuous teaching. Thus did our Fathers judge and
condemn Honorius, Pope of Rome, and Dioscorus, Pope of Alexandria, and
Macedonius and Nestorius, Patriarchs of Constantinople, and Peter Gnapheus,
Patriarch of Antioch, with others. For if the abomination of desolation stood in
the Holy Place, why not innovation and heresy upon a holy Throne? Hence is
exhibited in a brief compass the weakness and feebleness of the efforts in behalf
of the despotism of the Pope of Rome. For, unless the Church of Christ was
founded upon the immovable rock of St. Peter’s Confession, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the Living God (which was the answer of the Apostles in common,
when the question was put to them, Whom say ye that I am? (Matt. xvi. 15,) as
the Fathers, both Eastern and Western, interpret the passage to us), the Church
was built upon a slippery foundation, even on Cephas himself, not to say on the
Pope, who, after monopolizing the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, has made
such an administration of them as is plain from history. But our divine Fathers,
with one accord, teach that the sense of the thrice-repeated command, Feed my
sheep, implied no prerogative in St. Peter over the other Apostles, least of all in
his successors. It was a simple restoration to his Apostleship, from which he had
fallen by his thrice-repeated denial.
St. Peter himself appears to have
understood the intention of the thrice-repeated question of our Lord:
Lovest
thou Me, and more, and than these?. (John xxi. 16;) for, calling to mind the
words, Thou all shall be offended because of Thee, yet will 1 never be offended
(Matt. xxvi. 33), he was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest
thou Me? But his successors, from self-interest, understand the expression as
indicative of St. Peter's more ready mind.”
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“... yet are we convinced from the words of our LORD, that the time will come
when that divine prayer concerning the denial of Peter, ‘that his faith might not
fail for ever’ will operate also in some one of the successors of his Throne, who
will also weep, as he did, bitterly, and being sometime converted will strengthen
us, his brethren, still more in the Orthodox Confession, which we hold from our
forefathers;—and would that his Holiness might be this true successor of the
blessed Peter! To this our humble prayer, what hinders that we should add our
sincere and hearty Counsel in the name of the Holy Catholic Church? We dare
not say, as does his Holiness (p. x. 1.22), that it should be done ‘without any
delay;’ but without haste, after mature consideration, and also, if need be, after
consultation with the more wise, religious, truth-loving, and prudent of the
Bishops, Theologians, and Doctors, to be found at the present day, by God's
good Providence, in every nation of the West.”
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“His Holiness says that the Bishop of Lyons, St. Irenaeus, writes in praise of the
Church of Rome: ‘That the whole Church, namely, the faithful from everywhere,
must come together in that Church, because of its Primacy, in which Church the
tradition, given by the Apostles, has in all respects been observed by the faithful
everywhere.’ Although this saint says by no means what the followers of the
Vatican would make out, yet even granting their interpretation, we reply: Who
denies that the ancient Roman Church was Apostolic and Orthodox? None of us
will question that it was a model of orthodoxy. We will specially add, for its
greater praise, from the historian Sozomen (Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 12), the
passage, which his Holiness has overlooked, respecting the mode by which for a
time she was enabled to preserve the orthodoxy which we praise:—‘For, as
everywhere,’ saith Sozomen, ‘the Church throughout the West, being guided
purely by the doctrines of the Fathers, was delivered from contention and
deception concerning these things.’ Would any of the Fathers or ourselves deny
her canonical privilege in the rank of the hierarchy, so long as she was guided
purely by the doctrines of the Fathers, walking by the plain rule of Scripture and
the holy Synods! But at present we do not find preserved in her the dogma of
the Blessed Trinity according to the Creed of the holy Fathers assembled first in
Nicea and afterwards in Constantinople, which the other five Ecumenical Councils
confessed and confirmed with such anathemas on those who adulterated it in the
smallest particular, as if they had thereby destroyed it. Nor do we find the
Apostolical pattern of holy Baptism, nor the Invocation of the consecrating Spirit
upon the holy elements: but we see in that Church the eucharistic Cup,
heavenly drink, considered superfluous, (what profanity!) and very many other
things, unknown not only to our holy Fathers, who were always entitled the
catholic, clear rule and index of Orthodoxy, as his Holiness, revering the truth,
himself teaches (p. vi), but also unknown to the ancient holy Fathers of the
West. We see that very primacy, for which his Holiness now contends with all his
might, as did his predecessors, transformed from a brotherly character and
hierarchical privilege into a lordly superiority. What then is to be thought of his
unwritten traditions, if the written have undergone such a change and alteration
for the worse? ... he who is cited by his Holiness as a witness of the primacy of
the Roman Church, shows that its dignity is not that of a lordship, nor even
appellate, to which St. Peter himself was never ordained, but is a brotherly
privilege in the Catholic Church, and an honor assigned the Popes on account of
the greatness and privilege of the City. Thus, also, the fourth Ecumenical
Council, for the preservation of the gradation in rank of Churches canonically
established by the third Ecumenical Council (Canon 8),—following the second
(Canon 3), as that again followed the first (Canon 6), which called the appellate
jurisdiction of the Pope over the West a Custom,—thus uttered its determination:
‘On account of that City being the Imperial City, the Fathers have with reason
given it prerogatives’ (Canon 28). Here is nothing said of the Pope's special
monopoly of the Apostolicity of St. Peter, still less of a vicarship in Rome's
Bishops, and an universal Pastorate. This deep silence in regard to such great
privileges—nor only so, but the reason assigned for the primacy, not ‘Feed my
sheep,’ not ‘On this rock will I build my Church,’ but simply old Custom, and the
City being the Imperial City; and these things, not from the LORD, but from the
Fathers—will seem, we are sure, a great paradox to his Holiness entertaining
other ideas of his prerogatives. The paradox will be the greater, since, as we
shall see, he greatly honors the said fourth Ecumenical Synod as one to be found
a witness for his Throne; and St. Gregory, the eloquent, called the Great (lib. i.
Ep. 25), was wont to speak of the four (Ecumenical Councils [not the Roman
CHURCH HISTORY - 240
See] as the four Gospels, and the four-sided stone on which the Catholic Church
is built.”
“But, finally, his Holiness says (p. ix. l.12) that the fourth Ecumenical Council
(which by mistake he quite transfers from Chalcedon to Carthage), when it read
the epistle of Pope Leo I, cried out, ‘Peter has thus spoken by Leo.’ It was so
indeed. But his Holiness ought not to overlook how, and after what examination,
our fathers cried out, as they did, in praise of Leo. Since however his Holiness,
consulting brevity, appears to have omitted this most necessary point, and the
manifest proof that an Ecumenical Council is not only above the Pope but above
any Council of his, we will explain to the public the matter as it really happened.
Of more than six hundred fathers assembled in the Counci1 of Chalcedon, about
two hundred of the wisest were appointed by the Council to examine both as to
language and sense the said epistle of Leo; nor only so, but to give in writing and
with their signatures their own judgment upon it, whether it were orthodox or
not ... And thus all in succession: ‘The epistle corresponds,’ ‘the epistle is
consonant,’ ‘the epistle agrees in sense,’ and the like. After such great and very
severe scrutiny in comparing it with former holy Councils, and a full conviction of
the correctness of the meaning, and not merely because it was the epistle of the
Pope, they cried aloud, ungrudgingly, the exclamation on which his Holiness now
vaunts himself: But if his Holiness had sent us statements concordant and in
unison with the seven holy Ecumenical Councils, instead of boasting of the piety
of his predecessors lauded by our predecessors and fathers in an Ecumenical
Council, he might justly have gloried in his own orthodoxy, declaring his own
goodness instead of that of his fathers. Therefore let his Holiness be assured,
that if, even now, he will write us such things as two hundred fathers on
investigation and inquiry shall find consonant and agreeing with the said former
Councils, then, we say, he shall hear from us sinners today, not only, ‘Peter has
so spoken,’ or anything of like honor, but this also, ‘Let the holy hand be kissed
which has wiped away the tears of the Catholic Church.’
1850 Pius IX (1846-78) set up a rival episcopal hierarchy in England. He
appointed Nicholas Wiseman, formerly a vicar apostolic, as archbishop of
Westminster. Wiseman was responsible for the rising acceptance of the concept
of papal infallibility among Catholics in England, in part through the quarterly,
the Dublin Review, which he had founded in about 1835.
1852 For the crime of reading the Bible in an Italian translation and distributing
this translation in Florence, Francesco Madiai and his wife were sentenced to four
years of imprisonment by the government of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. They
were released when Lord Palmerston threatened Tuscany with English warships.
1853 The Crimean War began. Lasted through 1856. The war was caused by a
French demand that the Turks restore Latin rights in the Holy Land as described
in a 1740 treaty. When the Turks complied, they dispossessed the Orthodox
Christians of their accustomed rank. The Russian tsar, Nicholas I, reacted by
demanding that the Orthodox privileges be restored and, in addition, he be
guaranteed a protectorate over all Orthodox Christians (estimated at 12 million)
in the Ottoman Empire. It was this demand for a protectorate over the laity, and
not the clergy alone, which the Turks, backed by the British and the French,
refused to admit, which led to the war.
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The Roman Catholic church had a hand in moving the British and French against
the Russians. The Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Sibor, at the start of the Crimean
War, said, “It is a sacred deed, a God-pleasing deed, to ward off the Photian
heresy [Orthodoxy], subjugate it and destroy it with a new crusade. This is the
clear goal of today's crusade. Such was the goal of all the crusades, even if all
their participants were not fully aware of it. The war which France is now
preparing to wage against Russia is not a political war but a holy war. It is not a
war between two governments or between two peoples, but is precisely a
religious war, and other reasons presented are only pretexts.”
Dostoyevsky wrote: “Militant Roman Catholicism savagely takes the side of the
Turks. At the moment, there are no more savage haters of Russia than these
militant clerics. It was not some prelate but the Pope himself, who loudly and
with joy, spoke of the ‘victories of the Turks’ and predicted a ‘fateful future’ for
Russia at various Vatican meetings. This dying old man, the ‘head of Christianity’
was not ashamed to admit in public that every time he hears of a Russian defeat
he experiences joy.”
1854 On December 8, Pius IX issued Ineffabilis Deus defining the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception: “that the most blessed Virgin Mary, in the first moment
of her conception, by a special gift of grace from Almighty God, in consideration
of the merits of Jesus Christ the Savior of mankind, was preserved pure from all
taint of original sin.”
1858 Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old French girl, claimed to have seen a
white figure with a rosary who spoke to her in French, saying, “I am the
Immaculate Conception.”
The figure showed Bernadette where to find a
previously unknown spring of water. Thus began the pilgrimage destination of
Lourdes.
1858 A Christian nurse in a Jewish family’s home in Bologna (at that time, within
the Papal States), baptized their small son without their consent. The boy was
taken from his parents and raised at Rome in a home for converted Jews.
Indignation at this act was widespread in Europe, but ineffectual.
1859 Tischendorf discovered Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph) at the Monastery of Saint
Catherine, at the foot of Mount Sinai. Aleph is of the Alexandrian text type, with
some Western readings. (See 350 for contents, 130 for a remark on the Epistle
of Barnabas.)
1860 On July 9, a Muslim mob attacked the Christian quarter in Damascus.
Over 2500 men were killed, apart from women and children. Many of the latter
were sold into slavery. The patriarchal cathedral was burned, and those who had
fled there for safety died. Turkish troops were involved in the slaughter.
1864 Pope Pius IX (1846-78) presented his syllabus of errors. One error is that
it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion be held as the only religion of
the state, to the exclusion of all others. The syllabus also disapproves of secular
public education and the separation of church and state. Catholics are forbidden
to consider that the pope’s conduct may have contributed to the schism between
East and West. It is held to be an error that, “Every man is free to embrace and
profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true.”
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1866 John Mason Neale (born 1818) died this year.
ancient Latin and Greek hymns into English.
Neale translated many
1867 Protestant attitudes toward other Christians were sometimes smugly
triumphant in this era. The third volume of Philip Schaff's History of the Church
was published in this year. Of the Monophysite churches of the East, Schaff
wrote, "They have long since fallen into stagnation, ignorance, and superstition,
and are to Christendom as a praying corpse to a living man. They are isolated
fragments of the ancient church history, and curious petrifactions from the
Christological battle-fields of the fifth and sixth centuries .... But Providence has
preserved them, like the Jews, and doubtless not without design .... Their very
hatred of the orthodox Greek church makes them more accessible both to
Protestant and Roman missions, and to the influences of Western Christianity
and Western civilization.
"On the other hand, they are a door for Protestantism to the Arabs and the
Turks; to the former through the Jacobites, to the later through the Armenians.
There is more reason to hope for their conversion, because the Mohammedans
despise the old Oriental churches, and must be won, if at all, by a purer type of
Christianity." Thus, it was thought necessary to convert fellow Christians, not
simply in order to enlighten them with Protestant truth, but to exploit their
conversion to bring the gospel to Islam.
1870 The first Vatican Council defined the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.
The statement on papal infallibility, Pastor Aeturnus: “We teach and define as a
divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that
is, when in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in
virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith
or morals to be held by the whole church, he possesses, by the divine assistance
promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer
willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith and morals.
Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by
consent of the church, irreformable.”
Pastor Aeturnus claims to be “in accordance with the ancient and constant faith
of the universal church” and to faithfully adhere “to the tradition received from
the beginning of the Christian faith.”
There is thus no recourse here to
Newman’s system of doctrinal development. It teaches also that the jurisdiction
of the bishop of Rome “is truly episcopal, is immediate; to which all, of whatever
rite and dignity, both pastors and faithful, both individually and collectively, are
bound.” Those who disagree are assured that “This is the teaching of Catholic
truth, from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and salvation.”
The Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV subsequently disclosed, that in the aftermath
of the then patriarch's opposition to the definition of Papal infallibility at the first
Vatican council, His Beatitude had been forced to the ground before the Papal
throne while Pius IX (1846-78) placed his foot on his head.
The Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Guidi, made a speech at the council urging
the Pope to exercise his infallibility only after taking counsel with the bishops of
the Church. Pius IX scolded him afterwards. Guidi responded that he simply
maintained that bishops are the witness of tradition. “Witnesses of tradition?”
responded the Pope, “There is only one; that's me.”
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1871 At Portmain, France, the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared to Eugene
Barbadette, age 12, his brother Joseph, 10, and two girls: Francoise Richer, 11,
and Jeanne-Marie Lebosse, 9. It was thought that the vision was related to the
halt of the German army’s advance on Laval.
1873 Jerusalem Codex. Philotheos Byrennios, Head Master of the higher Greek
school in Constantinople and later Metropolitan of Nicomedia, discovered a
collection of manuscripts in the hand of a certain Leon, dated 1056, in the
Jerusalem Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople. The collection
included (1) a summary of the Bible by St. John Chrysostom, (2) The Epistle of
Barnabas, (3) the two Epistles of Clement to the Corinthians, (4) The Didache of
the Twelve Apostles, (5) The Epistle of Mary of Cassoboli to Ignatius, and (6)
Twelve Epistles of Ignatius. The discovery provided the second copy of Barnabas
(the first being in Sinaiticus). It completed the text of 2 Clement (the epistles of
Clement are included in Alexandrinus, though 2 Clement in that uncial is only 3/5
the length of the same epistle in the Jerusalem Codex.) The Didache was
previously unknown.
1876St. Theophan the Recluse (1815-94) began issuing a translation of the
Philokalia, in five volumes, in Russian.
1877St. Arsenios of Paros (1800-1877) died. Forty days after his death, his
remains were incorrupt and wonderously fragrant.
1879 At Knock, Ireland, several people reportedly saw an apparition of the Virgin
Mary, St. Joseph, and (possibly) St. John the Evangelist, all motionless. Some
witnesses also saw a lamb, an altar, and a cross in the same scene.
1881Westcott and Hort published their New Testament. Their classification of
textual witnesses into four categories - Neutral (Aleph and B), Alexandrian,
Western (D, Old Syrian, Old Latin, and the Western Fathers), and Syrian (Ae and
the majority of manuscripts) - along with their low regard for the Syrian type,
has been criticized in the twentieth century with the discovery of older (papyrus)
manuscripts containing Syrian readings. The Westcott and Hort text relies
primarily on B (Vaticanus) and Aleph (Sinaiticus).
1884 The Candid Narrations of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father first published, in
Kazan. Now published as The Way of a Pilgrim, the books tells of the spiritual
journey of a Russian peasant into the ways of Orthodox mysticism.
1885 Revised Version published.
American Standard Version.
American Edition published in 1901 as the
1889 Dutch Catholics who had separated from Rome early in this century and
German and other European Catholics who rejected the dogma of Papal
Infallibility formed the Old Catholic Church in the Union of Utrecht.
1893 Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) published his encyclical On the Study of Holy
Scripture. It takes a quite fundamentalist tone in the following passage:
CHURCH HISTORY - 244
“It is true, no doubt, that copyists have made mistakes in the text of the Bible;
this question, when it arises, should be carefully considered on its merits, and
the fact not too easily admitted, but only in those passages where the proof is
clear. It may also happen that the sense of a passage remains ambiguous, and
in this case good hermeneutical methods will greatly assist in clearing up the
obscurity. But it is absolutely wrong and forbidden, either to narrow inspiration
to certain parts only of Holy Scripture, or to admit that the sacred writer has
erred. For the system of those who, in order to rid themselves of these
difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards the things
of faith and morals, and nothing beyond, because (as they wrongly think) in a
question of the truth or falsehood of a passage, we should consider not so much
what God has said as the reason and purpose which He had in mind in saying it this system cannot be tolerated. For all the books which the Church receives as
sacred and canonical, are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the
dictation of the Holy Ghost; and so far is it from being possible that any error can
co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with
error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible
that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true. This is the
ancient and unchanging faith of the Church, solemnly defined in the Councils of
Florence and of Trent, and finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by
the Council of the Vatican. These are the words of the last: ‘The Books of the
Old and New Testament, whole and entire, with all their parts, as enumerated in
the decree of the same Council (Trent) and in the ancient Latin Vulgate, are to
be received as sacred and canonical. And the Church holds them as sacred and
canonical, not because, having been composed by human industry, they were
afterwards approved by her authority; nor only because they contain revelation
without error; but because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, they have God for their author.’ ”
1895 The Turks assaulted the Armenian quarter of the town of Urfa. About 3000
who escaped fled to a cathedral. The Turks shot at them through the windows,
broke through the iron doors, fired upon the Armenians from the raised altar,
and set the cathedral on fire.
1896 Pope Leo XIII, in his Apostolicae Curae, declared Anglican orders invalid.
1897 Papyri were discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in an ancient rubbish heap.
During the excavation, which continued until 1907, 28 papyri containing portions
of the New Testament were unearthed, most of which date between 200 and
400: P1, 5, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
39, 51, 69, 70, 71, 77, 78, and 90.
1900 Pope Leo XIII, on the possibility of salvation outside of the Roman Catholic
Church, in his and Tametsi (1900) and Annum Ingressi Sumus (1903):
CHURCH HISTORY - 245
“(Tametsi) Those who acknowledge Christ must acknowledge Him completely
and entirely. The Head is the only-begotten Son of God; the Body is His Church.
All who dissent from the Scriptures concerning Christ are not in the Church, and
all who agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head but who do not
communicate in the unity of the Church are not in the Church. They can in no
way be counted among the children of God unless they take Jesus Christ as their
Brother and, at the same time, the Church as their Mother ... Consequently, all
who wish to reach salvation outside the Church are mistaken as to the way and
are engaged in a futile effort (Annum Ingressi Sumus) ... Christianity is, in fact,
incarnate in the Catholic Church; it is identified with that perfect and spiritual
society which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and has for its visible Head the
Roman Pontiff ... This is Our last lesson to you: receive it, engrave it upon your
minds, all of you: by God's commandment, salvation is to be found nowhere but
in the Church.”
The Twentieth Century
1904 Fr. Raphael Hawaweeny was consecrated bishop, responsible for all
Orthodox Christians of Arabic descent in the United States. Bishop Hawaweeny
was canonized a saint of the Orthodox Church on May 28, 2000.
1905 Assassination of the Grand Duke Sergei Romanov. His wife, Elisabeth
Feodorovna, daughter of the Grand Duke Louis of Hess-Darmstadt and Princess
Alice of England, visited his assassin in prison. Elisabeth later used her wealth to
found the Sisterhood of the Myrophoroi Martha and Mary, who managed a
convent, a hospital, and an orphanage. Elisabeth was deported to Siberia in
1918 where she and other Romanovs were thrown down a mineshaft, where they
died. Her relics were later transferred to the Magdalene church at Gethsemane.
(Elisabeth was sister to Alexandra, wife of Tsar Nicholas II.)
1908 After the Young Turks seized power in Turkey, Armenians were allowed to
bear arms, and so were conscripted into the military. See 1915 below.
1909 Conservative American scholars published a series of twelve booklets
defending fundamentalism under the title, The Fundamentals: A Testimony of
Truth. The Scofield Study Bible was also published in this year, popularizing the
system of dispensational premillenialism.
1910 Death of Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), the founder of Christian Science.
1915 Armenian conscripts in the Turkish army were relieved of their weapons
and made to serve in labor battalions. They were forced to carry heavy loads
extremely long distances. Those who survived these labors were shot.
Rural Armenians were either killed or marched into the Syrian desert. Armenians
in Trebizond were loaded onto ships which were then sunk in the Black Sea.
Those who survived the march into the desert were interned at concentration
camps in Mesopotamia and Syria. Estimates of the number of those killed range
from 300,000 (Turkish historians) to 1.5 million. A further 800,000 were
dispersed into foreign countries.
CHURCH HISTORY - 246
1917 The first phase of the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Russian
began. Much of the persecution in this period was conducted in a non-systematic
manner by individual Bolshevik “war lords.” Lenin intended to destroy the
Church by abolishing private property, and thus eliminating the Church's income.
Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested.
95,000 were put to death, executed by firing squad.
Of these,
1915-17 Three children (Lucia Santos (born 1907), Francisco (1908) and Jacinta
(1910) Marto) reportedly saw visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal. On
Oct 13, 1917, 70,000 people were present when what has come to be called the
“solar miracle” occurred: the sun is said to have danced and to have shed blue
and then yellow light.
1917 The Balfour declaration issued. Gave British support to “the establishment
in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
1918 The All-Russia Emergency Commission under Felix Dzerzhinsky executed
over 3000 Orthodox clergymen of all ranks. Some were drowned in ice-holes or
poured over with cold water in winter until they turned to ice-pillars.
1921 The second phase of the persecution of the Church in Russia. The
Orthodox Church was stigmatized as a subversive element loyal to the old tsarist
regime, while other religions were tolerated.
1922 The Solovki Camp of Special Purpose, the world’s first concentration camp,
established in the Solovki Islands in the White Sea. Eight metropolitans, twenty
archbishops, and forty-seven bishops of the Orthodox Church died there, along
with tens of thousands of the laity. (See 1922 for a related entry.)
1923 An Inter-Orthodox Congress authorized local churches to adopt the
Gregorian calendar for most feast days.
1924 The Ecumenical Patriarch introduced use of the Gregorian Calendar within
the Orthodox Church. The Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus,
Romania and Poland soon followed.
1925 The Scopes trial held in Dayton, Tennessee. John Thomas Scopes was
found guilty of violating a state law which required that only creationism be
taught in the state's public schools. Clarence Darrow’s defense of Scopes and
press coverage favorable to the defendant turned public opinion in his favor.
1925 The Roman Catholic Church introduced the Feast of Christ the King into the
calendar.
1928 Third phase of the Soviet persection of the Church. The New Economic
Policy was discontinued in April, with the result that the Orthodox Church was
considered a private enterprise, subject to excessive taxation. Clergy were not
allowed to vote or serve in the armed forces, but were taxed for failing to do so.
These taxes, in addition to the tax (up to 81%) on private enterprise, often
resulted in taxation of the clergy in excess of their income.
CHURCH HISTORY - 247
1929 The Soviet government began a serious crackdown on religion. All forms of
religious “propaganda” were forbidden. The expression of religion was restricted
to the space within the church structure. Clergy with incomes in excess of 3000
rubles per year were forced to vacate nationalized urban housing. Clergy and
their families were disenrolled from state insurance programs, including medical
care. A five-day work week was introduced in order to prevent worship on
Sunday.
In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the
Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to 200-300. Approximately 40,000 Orthodox
clergy and millions of laymen were killed for their faith between 1917 and 1940.
1930/31 Three papyrus manuscripts were purchased. Their point of origin is
unknown. Designated P45, 46 and 47, they are known as the Chester Beaty
Papyri, after their owner, Chester Beaty of Dublin.
1931 The Old Catholics and the Anglicans established communion in the Bonn
Agreement.
1931 The bishop of Rome relinquished all claims to territory within Italy except
for Vatican City.
1939 During World War II (1939-45), 700,000 Serbs were killed by the
predominantly Roman Catholic Croats. In Croatia, Serbs were forced to wear the
Cyrillic character P for Provoslavets, or Orthodox. The Catholic Archbishop of
Zagreb, who was indifferent to the treatment of the Orthodox, has recently been
canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Also, Orthodox in Poland were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism at this
time.
1942 The National Association of Evangelicals formed.
1942 Friar Tomislav Pilipovic Majstorovic, aka Fra Satona or Brother Satan, led
Ustashe (Croatian) forces as they killed 2500 Serbian residents of Banja Luka.
1944 Soviet authorities began to pressure Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic
bishops to dissolve the Union of Brest-Litovsk (see 1596).
1945 The Nag Hammadi library discovered. It consists of 12 papyrus books and
8 leaves from a thirteenth book. The fifty-two tractates these books contain
cover a variety of religious subjects, many from a Gnostic perspective.
1946 A Ukrainian Greek Catholic synod, which met from 8-10 March, broke the
Union of Brest-Litovsk (see 1596). The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was
banned and its property turned over to the Russian Orthodox Church. Those
who disagreed with the synod were forced underground (~1300) or imprisoned
(~1600). Those arrested were either shot or deported to Siberia. Approximately
eleven hundred returned to Orthodoxy.
1950 During the 50s and early 60s, a group of New Testament manuscripts
known as the Bodmer Papyri (after Martin Bodmer of Geneva) were discovered
and published. These include P66, 72, 73, 74, and 75.
CHURCH HISTORY - 248
1952 Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser led a coup that replaced Egypt's monarchy.
During the 1950s, Nasser's economic reforms tended to transfer wealth away
from Egypt's Coptic minority, which had enjoyed relative affluence.
1962 The Roman Catholic Church convened the Second Vatican Council in
October of this year. The council closed in December, 1965
1964 On Jan. 5, 1964, Patriarch Athenagoras I and Pope Paul VI (1963-78) met
in Jerusalem. Their “embrace of peace” and declaration of reconciliation was the
first official act by the two churches since the Schism in 1054. Then in 1965
both churches lifted the anathemas and excommunications placed against one
another in 1054.
1967 Though persecution had begun in 1944, the government of Albania
prohibited all religions in this year. The country had been perhaps 35 percent
Orthodox, 10 percent Catholic, and the remainder Moslem.
When the
persecution ended at the end of 1990, there were only 22 Orthodox clergy in the
country, down from 440 sixty years earlier.
1970 Publication of a definitive Roman missal containing the revised liturgy.
1979Pope John Paul II (1978-) decreed that the “New Vulgate” version was to be
considered “typical” and used in the liturgy. The New Vulgate took into account
the former Vulgate’s wording, but adhered to the most recent critical editions of
the original texts.
1979 The Episcopal Church in the US adopted a new prayer book.
1979 Archimandrite Philumen, keeper of the Orthodox monastery at Jacob's Well
in Nablus, was murdered. One week earlier, his life had been threatened by
Israelis who demanded that the cross and icons be removed from the church of
Jacob's Well.
Father Philumen's murderers also desecrated the church.
Philumen's remains were subsequently exhumed and found to be without decay.
1989 The Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church was legalized. Very soon,
Ukrainian Greek Catholics began seizing property from the Russian Orthodox
Church, with the complicity of state authorities and often by violence. These
buildings had belonged to to the Ukrainian Greek Catholics prior to that group’s
suppression in 1946.
1995 Pope John Paul II issued the encyclical Orientale Lumen, encouraging
reunion between East and West.
CHURCH HISTORY - 249
1996 The Holy Synod of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in a resolution called
for the establishment of communion with the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.
The resolution seems to have been inspired by the statements of the retired
Melkite Archbishop of Baalbeck, Lebanon, Elias Zoghby. Zoghby said that he
believed everything that the Orthodox Church believes, and that he was in
communion with Rome “in the limits recognized to the first among the bishops by
the Holy Fathers of the East during the first millennium before the separation.”
The Orthodox replied that they could not establish communion on those terms.
The issue, they said, could not be separated from that of “restoring communion
between the see of Rome and all Orthodox Churches.”
1998 In August, two Copts were murdered in El-Kosheh, a villiage in Upper
Egypt. Instead of arresting the perpetrators, whose identity was well-known, the
police seized and tortured many of the local (70% Christian) populace. The
police responsible for this brutality were promoted. On New Year’s Eve 1999,
more violence erupted in El-Kosheh, leaving 19 Christians and 2 Muslims dead.
Copts account for approximately 16% of Egypt’s population.
2000 Some historians estimate that as many as 50 million Christians were put to
death during the twentieth century, primarily in Communist Russia and China.
SOURCES
The Timeline of Church History was begun, as best I can recall, in 1996. At that
time, my interest was mainly to prepare a chronology of the events surrounding
the seven Ecumenical Councils. The kernel of the timeline was generated using
material in:
Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church. New York: Dorset Press, 1967; and
Kelly, J.N.D. Early Christian Doctrines. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978.
This initial skeleton was fleshed out with events gleaned from:
Roberts, Alexander and James Donaldson. Ante-Nicene Fathers.
Peabody,
Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1995; and
Schaff, Philip.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
Peabody, Massachusetts:
Hendrickson, 1995.
For the extensive treatment of the fourth century, particularly the Arian heresy,
the fourth volume of the second series of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers set
was invaluable, especially the prologomena by Archibald Roberts and Athanasius’
own record of the events of the councils. Material related to the decrees and
canons of the seven Ecumenical Councils themselves has been quoted from the
forteenth volume of the second series.
Since that beginning, entries have been gleaned from multiple sources. What
follows is a partial list, limited by my memory. I intend to gather the missing
sources into this list over time and add new ones as the work expands.
Aland et al.
Greek-English New Testament.
Stuttgart:
Deutsche
Bibelgesellschaft, 1994.
Attwater, Donald. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. London: Penguin, 1995.
Barraclough, Geoffrey. The Medieval Papacy. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968.
CHURCH HISTORY - 250
Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. London: The Aldine Press,
1954.
Bede. The Reckoning of Time. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999.
Berthold, George. Maximus Confessor. New York: Paulist Press, 1985. [See
especially the introduction by Jaroslav Pelikan.]
Brown, Peter. The Body and Society. New York: Columbia University Press,
1988.
Burke, James. Connections. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1978.
Burke, James. The Day the Universe Changed. Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1985.
Bury, J.B. History of the Later Roman Empire. New York: Dover, 1958.
Cantor, Norman. Medieval History. London: Macmillan, 1969.
Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. London: Penguin, 1997.
Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.
Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.
Duruy, Victor. The History of the Middle Ages. New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1891.
Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition). Chicago: 1986.
Figel, Jack. Byzantine Christianity and Islam. Fairfax, VA: Eastern Christian
Publications, 2001.
Fletcher, Richard. The Barbarian Conversion. New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1997.
Fox, Robin Lane. Pagans and Christians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.:
1989.
Gerson, Lloyd P. Plotinus. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: The
Modern Library.
Grant, Edward. Physical Science in the Middle Ages. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1981.
Grillmeier, Alloys and Theresia Hainthaler. Christ in Christian Tradition, Volume
2, From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590-604), Part
Two, The Church of Alexandria in the sixth century. Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press, 1995.
Grillmeier, Alloys and Theresia Hainthaler. Christ in Christian Tradition, Volume
2, From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590-604), Part
Four, The Church of Alexandria with Nubia and Ethiopia after 451. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
Guettee, Rene-Francois. The Papacy. Blanco, Texas: New Sarov Press, no year
given. [This is a reprint of, it appears, an 1866 edition.]
Gwynne, Walker. The Christian Year. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1926.
Herrin, Judith. The Formation of Christendom. Princeton New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1987.
Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos. Life After Death. Levadia, Greece: Birth
of the Theotokos Monastery, 1998.
Hippolytus.
The Apostolic Tradition.
Ridgefield, Connecticut:
Morehouse
Publishing, 1992.
Keen, Maurice. The Penguin History of Medieval Europe. London: Penguin, 1968.
Le Goff, Jaques. The Birth of Purgatory. Chicago: The Univerisity of Chicago
Press, 1986.
Leith, John H. Creeds of the Churches. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company,
1963.
CHURCH HISTORY - 251
Luibheid, Colm. Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works. New York: Paulist
Press, 1987. [See especially the introductions: “The Odyssey of Dionysian
Spirituality,” by Jaroslav Pelikan; “Influence and noninfluence of Dionysius in the
Western Middle Ages,” by Jean Leclercq; and “Pseudo-Dionysius and the
Reformation of the Sixteenth Century,” by Karlfried Froehlich.]
McGrath, Alister. In the Beginning, The Story of the King James Bible and How It
Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. New York: Anchor Books, 2001.
Meyendorff, John. Christ in Eastern Christian Thought. Crestwood, New York:
St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1987.
Meyendorff, John. The Primacy of Peter. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 1992.
Moss, C.B. The Old Catholic Movement. London: The Episcopal Book Club,
1964.
Newman, John. The Arians of the Fourth Century. Eugene: WIPF & Stock,
1996.
Newman, John. An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. New York:
Longmans, Green & Co., 1949.
Norwich, John Julius. Byzantium, The Early Centuries. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1988.
Ostroumoff, Ivan. The History of the Council of Florence. Boston: Holy
Transfiguration Monastery, 1971.
Pascal, Blaise. The Provincial Letters. London: Penguin Books, 1988.
Parry, Ken et al. The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers LTD, 2001.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Christianity and Classical Culture. New Haven & London: Yale
University Press, 1993.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1971.
Proctor, Francis, and Walter Frere. A New History of the Book of Common
Prayer. London: MacMillan and Co., 1951.
Schaff, Philip.
History of the Christian Church.
Peabody, Massachusetts:
Hendrickson, 1996.
Shepherd, Massey H. The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1951.
Spence, H.D.M. The Church of England. London: Cassell and Company, 1905.
Staley, Vernon. The Catholic Religion. Harrison, Pennsylvania: Morehouse,
1983.
Swete, Henry. An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Peabody,
Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1989.
“Synodicon of the Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Council for Orthodoxy,” The True
Vine, Issue Numbers 27 & 28 (Spring, 2000), 35-82.
“Synodicon of the Holy Spirit,” The True Vine, Issue Numbers 27 & 28 (Spring,
2000), 85-108.
Talley, Thomas J. The Origins of the Liturgical Year. New York: Pueblo, 1986.
Thunberg, Lars. Man and the Cosmos. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 1985.
Vasiliev, A.A. History of the Byzantine Empire. Madison: The University of
Wisconsin Press, 1952.
Ye’or, Bat. The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. Madison: Farleigh
Dickinson University Press, 1996.
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