Christianity in the 5th century
In the 5th century in Christianity, there were many developments which led to further fracturing of the
At the end of the 4th century the Roman Empire had effectively split into two states although its economy and the Church were still strongly tied. The two halves of the empire had always had cultural differences, in particular exemplified by the widespread use of the Greek language in the Eastern Empire and the more limited use of Greek in the West (Greek was used in the West but Latin was displacing it as the spoken
At the same time as these changes were taking place the Western Empire was beginning to
Ecumenical Councils
The
First Council of Ephesus
Theodosius II called a council to settle the Nestorian controversy. Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, opposed use of the term Theotokos (Greek Η Θεοτόκος, "God-bearer").[5] This term had long been used by orthodox writers, and it was gaining popularity along with devotion to Mary as Mother of God.[5] He reportedly taught that there were two separate persons in the incarnate Christ, though whether he actually taught this is disputed.[5] Cyril of Alexandria charged that this teaching of Nestorius implied that there had been in fact two Jesus Christs; one Christ was a man born of the virgin Mary and the other was divine and not born but also Jesus Christ.
Cyril of Alexandria regarded the embodiment of God in the person of Jesus Christ to be so mystically powerful that it spread out from the body of the God-man into the rest of the race, to reconstitute human nature into a graced and deified condition of the saints (Jesus Christ as the new Adam), one that promised immortality and transfiguration to believers. Nestorius, on the other hand, saw the incarnation as primarily a moral and ethical example to the faithful, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Cyril repeatedly stressed the simple idea that it was God who walked the streets of Nazareth (hence Mary was
The council deposed Nestorius, repudiated Nestorianism, proclaiming the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos.
After quoting the
Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon took place from October 8 to November 1, 451, at
The Council of Chalcedon repudiated Eutyches and his doctrine of
Schism in the East
Nestorianism
Nestorian churches are Eastern Christian churches that keep the faith of only the first two ecumenical councils, i.e., the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople. "Nestorian" is an outsider's term for a tradition that predated the influence of Nestorius. Thus, "Assyrian Church of the East" is a more neutral term. The
Oriental Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy strives to keep the faith of the seven
Oriental Orthodox is also sometimes referred to as "
Those who disagreed with the findings of the Council of Chalcedon are today known as the
Post-Nicene Fathers
Late Antique Christianity produced a great many renowned Fathers who wrote volumes of theological texts, including
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential
Greek Fathers
Those who wrote in
Cappadocian Fathers
The Cappadocians promoted early Christian theology and are highly respected in both Western and Eastern churches as saints. They were a 4th-century
These scholars along with
Subsequent to the First Council of Nicea, Arianism did not simply disappear. The semi-Arians taught that the Son is of like substance with the Father (
Cyril of Alexandria
John Chrysostom
Chrysostom is known within Christianity chiefly as a
Latin Fathers
Those fathers who wrote in
Jerome
Saint Jerome is best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. He also was a Christian apologist. Jerome's edition of the Bible, the Vulgate, is still an important text of the Roman Catholic Church. He is recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as a Doctor of the Church.
Augustine of Hippo
Saint
Augustine was born in present-day
Development toward a Pentarchy
By the 6th century, specifically under
The council at Chalcedon granted its archbishop jurisdiction over the three provinces mentioned by the First Council of Constantinople. The council also ratified an agreement between Antioch and Jerusalem, whereby Jerusalem held jurisdiction over three provinces,[21] numbering it among the five great sees.[22]
Growing tensions between East and West
The disagreements which led to the
The events leading to schism were not exclusively theological in nature. Cultural, political, and linguistic differences were often mixed with the theological. Unlike the
Some scholars[23] have argued that the schism between East and West has very ancient roots and that sporadic schisms in the common unions took place, such as under Pope Damasus I (4th and 5th century).
Papacy
While the origins of papal primacy concept are
Monasticism
Monasticism is a form of asceticism whereby one renounces worldly pursuits (in contemptu mundi) and concentrates solely on heavenly and spiritual pursuits, especially by the virtues humility, poverty, and chastity. It began early in the Church as a family of similar traditions, modeled upon Scriptural examples and ideals, and with roots in certain strands of Judaism. John the Baptist is seen as the archetypical monk, and monasticism was inspired by the organisation of the Apostolic community as recorded in Acts of the Apostles. Central figures in the development of monasticism were Basil of Caesarea in the East and Benedict of Nursia in the West, who created the famous Benedictine Rule, which became the most common rule throughout the Middle Ages.
Western monastic orders
Many distinct monastic orders developed within
Spread of Christianity
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung (
Following the Sack of Rome by invading European Goths, Rome slid into the Dark Ages which affected most parts of Western Europe and became increasingly isolated and irrelevant to the churches in the eastern and southern Mediterranean. This was a situation which suited and pleased many of the patriarchs and bishops of those churches.[25]
Spread of Christianity
In the 4th century some Eastern Germanic tribes, notably the Goths, adopted Arianism. From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (and re-converted) by missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church, firstly among the Franks, after Clovis I's conversion to Catholicism in 496. In 498 (497 or 499 are also possible) he let himself be baptised in Reims.[26] With this act, the Frankish Kingdom became Christian, although it would take until the 7th century for the population to abandon some of their pagan customs.[27] This was typical of the Christianization of Europe. Conversion of the West and East Germanic tribes took place "top to bottom", in the sense that missionaries aimed at converting Germanic nobility first, which would then impose their new faith on the general population
Ireland
The first non-Roman area to adopt monasticism was Ireland, which developed a unique form closely linked to traditional clan relations, a system that later spread to other parts of Europe, especially France. The earliest monastic settlements in Ireland emerged at the end of the 5th century. The first identifiable founder of a monastery was Saint Brigit, a saint who ranked with Saint Patrick as a major figure of the Irish church. The monastery at Kildare was a double monastery, with both men and women ruled by the Abbess, a pattern found in other monastic foundations.
Commonly Irish monasteries were established by grants of land to an abbot or abbess who came from a local noble family. The monastery became the spiritual focus of the tribe or kin group. Successive abbots and abbesses were members of the founder's family, a policy which kept the monastic lands under the jurisdiction of the family (and corresponded to Irish legal tradition, which only allowed the transfer of land within a family).
Ireland was a rural society of chieftains living in the countryside. There was no social place for urban leaders, such as bishops. In Irish monasteries the abbot (or abbess) was supreme, but in conformance to Christian tradition, bishops still had important sacramental roles to play (in the early Church the bishops were the ones who baptized new converts to bring them into the Church). In Ireland, the bishop frequently was subordinate to (or co-equal with) the abbot and sometimes resided in the monastery under the jurisdiction of the abbot.
Irish monasticism maintained the model of a monastic community while, like John Cassian, marking the contemplative life of the hermit as the highest form of monasticism. Saints' lives frequently tell of monks (and abbots) departing some distance from the monastery to live in isolation from the community.
Irish monastic rules specify a stern life of prayer and discipline in which prayer, poverty, and obedience are the central themes. Yet Irish monks did not fear pagan learning. Irish monks needed to learn a foreign language, Latin, which was the language of the Church. Thus they read Latin texts, both spiritual and secular, with an enthusiasm that their contemporaries on the continent lacked. By the end of the 7th century, Irish monastic schools were attracting students from England and from Europe.
Franks
The Franks and their ruling
Clovis I' wife
That a
However, that a pagan like Clovis, could ask Christ for help also shows the adaptability of the
The baptism of Clovis I also highlights the sacred role of the Germanic king. A Germanic king held the highest religious office for his people.[37] He was seen as of divine descent, was the leader of the religious cult and was responsible for the fertility of the land and military victory. Accordingly, the conversion of their leader had a strong impact on his people. If he considered it appropriate to adopt the Christian belief, this also was a good idea for them.
Thus early Germanic Christianity was presented as an alternative to native
Georgian Orthodox Church
The Georgian Orthodox Church became independent in 466 when the Patriarchate of Antioch elevated the Bishop of Mtskheta to the rank of "Catholicos of Kartli".
Timeline
- 398-404 List of Patriarchs of Constantinople, (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers)
- 396-430 Augustine, bishop of Hippo, considered the founder of formalized Christian theology (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers)
- 406 Armenian Bible, translated by Armenian OrthodoxBible
- 410, 24 August: Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths.
- 412-444 Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, coined Hypostatic union
- 410 - New Testament translated into Armenian[38]
- 418-419 Antipope Eulalius rival to Pope Boniface I
- 420 St. Pericope of the Adultressaddition to John (John 7:53-8:11) (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers)
- 423-457 Hypostatic Union, approved Council of Chalcedonbut rejected canons in 453
- 420 - An Arabian Bedouin tribe under sheikh Peter-Aspebet is converted
- 425 - The first bishops are ordained for Herat (Afghanistan) and Samarkand (Uzbekistan)
- 431 ecumenical, repudiated Nestorianism, decreed Mary the Mother of God, forbid any changes to Nicene Creed of 381, rejected by Assyrian Church of the East
- 432 St Patrick begins mission in Ireland. Almost the entire nation is Christian by the time of his death in a conversion that is both incredibly successful and largely bloodless.
- 432 - Patrick goes to Ireland as missionary [39]
- 449 Second Council of Ephesus endorses Monophysitism, provoking a schism
- 450 - First Christians reported in Liechtenstein[40]
- 450? Codex Alexandrinus(A): Alexandrian text-type; Codex Bezae(D): Greek/Latin Gospels + Acts; Codex Washingtonianus(W): Greek Gospels; both of Western text-type
- 450? std. Aramaic Targums, Old Testament in Aramaic
- 450?
- 440-461 Attila the Hun at Rome, issued Tomein
- 451 Oriental Orthodoxy
- 455: Sack of Rome by the .
- 476, September 4 Emperor fall of the Western Roman Empire
- 484-519 Henoticondivides Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) churches
- 491 Armenian Orthodoxsplit from East (Greek) and West (Latin) churches
- 495 Vicar of Christ decreed a title of Bishop of Rome by Pope Gelasius I
- 496 Clovis I, King of the Franks, baptized
- 496 - Conversion of Clovis I, king of Franks in Gaul, along with 3,000 warriors [41]
- 499 - Persian king Kavadh I, fleeing his country, meets a group of Christian missionaries going to Central Asia to preach to the Turks
- 498-499,501-506 Antipope Laurentius, rival of Pope Symmachus, Laurentian schism
- 500? Incense introduced in Christian church service, first plans of Vatican
- 500 - First Christians reported in North Yemen; Nairam becomes Christian center
See also
- Rise of Christianity during the Fall of Rome
- History of Christianity
- History of the Roman Catholic Church
- History of the Eastern Orthodox Church
- History of Christian theology
- History of Oriental Orthodoxy
- Church Fathers
- List of Church Fathers
- Christian monasticism
- Patristics
- Development of the New Testament canon
- Christianization
- Timeline of Christianity#Era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
- Timeline of Christian missions#Era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
- Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church
- Chronological list of saints in the 5th century
Notes and references
- ^ American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1857), p. 89.
- ^ Bussell (1910), p. 346.
- ^ Latourette (1975), p. 183.
- ^ Anderson (2010), p. 604.
Amory (), pp. 259–262. - ^ a b c "Nestorius." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Nestorius and Nestorianism
- ^ canon 7
- ^ "Eutyches" and "Archimandrite." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ a b "Latrocinium." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ "Monophysitism." Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005
- ^ Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. p. 10.
- ^ Vladimir Lossky theology is the most widely accepted and or followed of all modern Orthodox theologians [1]
- ^ Athanasius, On the Incarnation 47
- ^ Pope Vigilius, Constitution of Pope Vigilius, 553
- ^ "St John Chrysostom" in the Catholic Encyclopedia, available online; retrieved March 20, 2007.
- ISBN 0-19-530429-2. 48
- ISBN 965-07-0665-8.
- ^ Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, article Platonism
- ^ a b Durant, Will. Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972
- ^ Letter 43 Chapter 9
- ^ Fourth Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Jurisdiction of Jerusalem and Antioch
- ISBN 0-14-020592-6), p. 34
- ^ Cleenewerck, Laurent His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Washington, DC: EUC Press (2008) pp.145-155 [self-published source]
- Pippin the Short and the establishment of the Carolingian dynasty.
- ^ Aristeides Papadakis The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy, SVS Press, NY, 1994 p.14
- ^ Padberg, Lutz v. (1998), p.45-48, p.53
- ^ Padberg, Lutz v. (1998), p.59
- ^ 497 or 499 are also possible; Padberg 1998: 53
- ^ Padberg 1998, 47
- ^ Padberg 1998, 48
- ^ Padberg 1998, 87
- ^ Padberg 1998, 52
- ^ Padberg 1998:48>
- ^ Padberg 1998: 48
- ^ Padberg 1998: 128
- ^ Padberg 1998: 121
- ^ Padberg 1998, 29; Padberg notes, that this is probably disputed research, but can be affirmed for the northern Germanic area
- ^ Neill, p. 48
- ^ Neill, p. 49
- ^ Barrett, p. 24
- ^ Neill, 51, 95
Further reading
- Esler, Philip F. The Early Christian World. Routledge (2004). ISBN 0-415-33312-1.
- White, L. Michael. From Jesus to Christianity. HarperCollins (2004). ISBN 0-06-052655-6.
- Freedman, David Noel (Ed). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (2000). ISBN 0-8028-2400-5.
- Pelikan, Jaroslav Jan. The Christian Tradition: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). University of Chicago Press (1975). ISBN 0-226-65371-4.
- Trombley, Frank R., 1995. Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529 (in series Religions in the Graeco-Roman World) (Brill) ISBN 90-04-09691-4
- Fletcher, Richard, The Conversion of Europe. From Paganism to Christianity 371-1386 AD. London 1997.
- Schatz, Klaus (1996). Papal Primacy. Liturgical Press. ISBN 0-8146-5522-X.
- Schimmelpfennig, Bernhard (1992). The Papacy. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-07515-2.
External links
- Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Christian Origins Archived 2014-08-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Guide to Early Church Documents
- Chart of Church Fathers at ReligionFacts.com Archived 2009-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
- Church Fathers' works in English edited by Philip Schaff, at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
- Church Fathers at Newadvent.org
- Faulkner University Patristics Project A growing collection of English translations of patristic texts and high-resolution scans from the comprehensive Patrologia compiled by J. P. Migne.
- Primer on the Church Fathers at Corunum