Category Archives: Early Middle Ages

#476 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Church of the East Defines Itself

The Church of the East moves away from the Church of the Roman Empire through the adaptation of married clergy and the adaptation of the Christology of Theodore of Mopsuestia as its official teaching. Meanwhile, the Church of Armenia adopts Zeno’s Henotikon.

Links:
Map of the Roman/Persian Border by Cplakidas. On the map, Iberia is the land of the ethnic Georgians. Nisibis can be found just across the Roman/Sassanid border – just above “MESOPOTAMIA”

Diagram of the spectrum of Antiochine and Alexandrine Christology and where different Churches and theologians fall along the spectrum between pure monophysitism [one nature Christology] and pure dyophyistism [two nature Christology]

Canons of the Synod of Acacius/Seleucia

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#476 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Church of the East Defines Itself

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#475 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Schism Continues

As the conflict between East and West over the Henotikon continues, Pope Felix III needs to deal with Nicenes in North Africa abandoning the faith and the Ostrogoths invading Italy. We also look at the theology of Philoxenus of Mabbug.

Links:
Photo of coin of Theodoric the Great

Information on Philoxenus of Mabbug

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#475 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Schism Continues

#474 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Acacian Schism

Zeno’s Henotikon succeeds in establishing a tenuous religious peace in the East but provokes schism with Pope Felix III over its apparent failure to defend the Council of Chalcedon and Acacius’ unwillingness to recognize Felix’s claims of Petrine Authority

Links:
Photo of coin of Emperor Zeno by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.

Christopher Haas. “Patriarch and People: Peter Mongus of Alexandria and Episcopal Leadership in the Late Fifth Century.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 1, no. 3 (1993): 297-316

Rafał Kosiński, Peter the Fuller, Patriarch of Antioch

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#474 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Acacian Schism

#473 – A History of the Catholic Church – Faustus and the Henotikon

St. Faustus of Riez leads the bishops of Gaul against the theology of Predestination showing that the defeat of Pelagius has not meant the complete acceptance of Augustine. In the East, in an attempt to create unity between Chalcedonians and Monophysites, Eastern Emperor Zeno issues the Henotikon.

Links:
Photo of image of Saint Faustus by Reinhardhauke

Selections from the writings of St. Faustus

“Augustine, Pelagius and the Southern Gallic Tradition: Faustus of Riez’s De Gratia Dei,” in Grace for Grace: The Debates After Augustine and Pelagius.

Raúl Villegas Marín, “Lucidus on Predestination: The Damnation of Augustine’s Predestinationism in the Synods of Arles (373) and Lyons (474)”. Papers Presented at the Fifteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2007. Leuven: Peeters, 2010. pp. 163-167

The Henotikon

Michel van Esbroeck, “The Memra on the Parrot by Isaac of Antioch”, The Journal of Theological Studies, New Series. Vol. 47. No. 2. October 1996. pp. 464-476

Fr. Seraphim’s Christmas Wish List

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#473 – A History of the Catholic Church – Faustus and the Henotikon

#472 – A History of the Catholic Church – Barbarian Domination

In the West, the Fall of Roman power in the West meant the domination of Arians in the Kingdom of the Vandals of North Africa, the Kingdom of the Visigoths in Hispania and Gaul and the Kingdom of Odoacer in Italy.
In North Africa, the Nicene Romans experienced severe persecution. In Italy, there was relative religious tolerance.
In Rome, political separation meant greater freedom from the Emperor far away in Constantinople.

Links:
Photo of statue of Saint Eugenius by Giovanni Dall’Orto

Map of Europe in 480

Christopher J. Nofziger, Reign of heretics: Arianism and political power in the Vandal and Ostrogothic kingdoms

Fr. Seraphim’s Christmas Wish List

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#472 – A History of the Catholic Church – Barbarian Domination

#471 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Fall of the West

We look at the role of Christianity in the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West and the continuing conflict over the Council of Chalcedon in the East as seen in Emperor Basiliscus’ Encyclical.

Links:
Image of Daniel the Stylite

Map of Europe in 476

Basiliscus’ Encyclical – found in Chapter 4

Fr. Seraphim’s Christmas Wish List

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#471 – A History of the Catholic Church – The Fall of the West