 Chapter 13 Part 4 of History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. This recording by Anna Roberts. History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by S. Chetham. Chapter 13 Part 4 Ecclesiastical 3. It was natural that when Christians became numerous and services splendid, churches should become more spacious and dignified. So Eusebius tells us that when the church had rest, Christian temples rose much more lofty and magnificent than those which had been destroyed, so that in every city there were consecrations of newly built houses of prayer. 1. The churches of the period from Constantine to Justinian are for the most part either of the silicone or the domed type. The Christian Basilica, which in its general traits strongly resembles the secular buildings of the same name which were used as tribunals and market houses, was an oblong hall divided by rows of columns into a central space and two, or occasionally four, side aisles. 2. Above the columns rose a wall pierced with windows which admitted a flood of light into the interior. The roof was in some cases open, so as to show the timbers of the construction, in others concealed by the ceiling, often richly decorated. The entrance was generally from the west. At the other end the central nave terminated in an apse, round the wall of which were the seats of the bishop and the other clergy, while the holy table or altar, in primitive times of wood, but from the middle of the fourth century, usually of stone, stood nearly in the center of the semi-circle. 3. From a canopy above it was frequently suspended a dove of precious metal in which the Eucharist was reserved. It was probably not customary before the end of the sixth century to place more than one altar in a church. Immediately in front of the Bima was frequently a raised platform for the choir, at the corners of which were desks or embones for the readers. At one of these desks the preacher sometimes stood, but a bishop seems always to have preached from his cathedral in the Bima itself. In most churches the colonnades stretched in an unbroken line to the wall beside the apse, but in the grander churches such as the old St. Peter's at Rome they did not reach the apse, but came to an end at a point considerably short of it where a lofty arch, the triumphal arch, was thrown over the nave. This left a free space in front of the apse which was sometimes prolonged beyond the lateral walls of the church so as to form a transept. The floor of the apse or Bima was always raised above that of the nave and was approached by a broad flight of steps. It was separated from the nave by a screen or railing. Beneath the altar was frequently an excavation or vault called Confesio to receive the relics of some saint. Before the principal entrance was a forecourt generally surrounded by cloisters in the midst of which was the basin at which the faithful performed ceremonial ablutions before entering the church. That portion of the cloister which ran along the wall of the church formed an anti-church to which persons were admitted who were not in full communion. Where there was no such portico a space was marked off for noncommunicants within the church itself at the end furthest from the altar and nearest the entrance. In Oriental churches, galleries for the women were sometimes placed over the side aisles. From an early date, certainly as early as the beginning of the fourth century, churches were solemnly dedicated and set apart from profane uses. The precinct of a church was generally surrounded with a wall which also enclosed subsidiary buildings especially one destined for the administration of holy baptism and called a baptistry containing a bath in which adults might be immersed. When it became usual to baptize infants, a font generally of stone was placed in the church itself. Even to this day the Gothic churches of the West bear manifest traces of their derivation from the ancient Basilica. The other form adopted by the early builders of churches was the dome. This was probably suggested by the circular or polygonal domed buildings such as the tombs of Cecilia Metella and of Hadrian at Rome placed over the remains of famous persons. Christians built similar structures over the graves of martyrs and used them for worship. Such was probably the lofty octagonal church built by Constantine in the year 327 at Antioch. The famous dome of the rock at Jerusalem may possibly be of the same age. To Constantine is also to be attributed the circular domed church of St. Costanza at Rome by some considered a baptistry. But all ancient domed edifices yield in splendor to the magnificent edifice dedicated to St. Sophia at Constantinople in which nave and maps are combined with the dome. In this church the capabilities of the domed style became apparent and it spread accordingly throughout the Eastern Empire. In Italy there is a most striking example of it in the church of St. Vitalis at Ravenna nearly contemporary with St. Sophia. Two, the Council of Elvira in the beginning of the fourth century probably expressed a feeling very general in the church when it resolved that it was not fitting to introduce pictures into St. Peter's Church. The first pictures of St. Peter's Church of St. Peter's Church of St. Peter's Church of St. Paul and the Lord himself such as he had himself seen as having unwearly followed pagan examples. And when the Emperor's sister, Constancia, begged him to send her a picture of the Savior, he replied with some asperity that he had no such thing and that he had himself taken away two pictures of pagan philosophers which some women vaunted as portraits of our Lord St. Peter lest the heathen should suppose that Christians had become idolaters. At a later date, Epiphanius, seeing a curtain in a village church at Palestine adorned with a representation of Christ or of some saint, tore it down and a stereo of Amasea begged that no painting should be made of that human form which Christ once bore for us. Notwithstanding this, however, during the fourth and subsequent centuries the walls of churches came to be covered with representations of sacred persons and scenes. Gregory of Nissa describes the painting of a martyrdom in a church dedicated to a martyr, and Paulinus of Nola contends that the pictures in the church which he himself built attracted and instructed the country folk who entered it. Nilus, a famous ascetic contemporary with Augustine, replying to a friend who is about to build and decorate a church, says that a man of masculine and vigorous mind would be content to place at the east end of his church one single cross as the emblem of our salvation, but he would not object to place on the side walls representations of scenes from the Old and New Testament from the hand of the best painter attainable as the books of the unlettered. Pictures for the decoration of churches were almost always executed in mosaic work. They were produced, that is, by arranging small cubes or tesserae of different colors in the required forms. These tesserae were at first cut from various colored marbles, hard stones, or earthenware, but when the art was discovered of making colored tesserae of vitreous paste, scarcely any other material was used in church mosaics. Pictures so formed were almost indestructible except by direct violence, and if the material was incapable of producing flowing lines, subtle gradations of color, and the expression of lively feeling, it was not ill adapted to portray a certain majestic calm and exaltation above the world. Mosaics dating from the time of Constantine onwards are found at Rome, at Thessalonica, at Ravenna, and elsewhere, the earliest having the gay and festive character of pagan art. In the most ancient mosaics, the position of chief dignity, the center of the conch of the apse, was always occupied by Christ, either standing or enthroned, supported on either hand by the apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, standing next to him, together with the patron saints and founders of the church. Subsequently the place of our Lord was usurped by the patron saint, as at Saint Agnes at Rome, or by the blessed virgin holding the divine child in her lap, as at Parenzo and Saint Mary in Domenica. A hand holding a crown is usually seen issuing from the clouds above the chief figure, a symbol of the supreme being. The river Jordan flows at the feet of Christ, separating the church triumphant above from the church militant below. In a zone below we usually find, in the center, the holy lamb, the head surrounded by a cruciform nimbus, standing on a mount from which gushed the four rivers of paradise, symbolizing the four evangelists. Trees, usually palm trees laden with fruit, typify the tree of life, while the phoenix, with its radiant plumage, symbolizes the soul of the Christian, passing through death to a new and glorified life. On either side, six sheep, types of the apostles, and through them of believers in general, issue from the gates of the two holy cities, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. On the western face of the great arch of the apse, or the arch of triumph, we see at the apex a medallion bust of Christ, or the holy lamb, or, which is very frequent, the book with seven seals elevated on a jeweled throne. On either side are ranged angels, the evangelistic symbols, and the seven golden candlesticks in a horizontal band, the spandrels below containing the twenty-four white-robed elders of the apocalypse, offering their crowns, with arms outstretched in adoration to the lamb. In the larger basilicas, where a transept separates the nave from the apse, a second transverse arch is introduced, the face of which is also adorned with subjects taken from the apocalypse. At Ravenna, however, in the Church of Saint Vitalis, not only are sacred scenes and symbols depicted, but also Justinian with his attendance, and Theodore with her ladies, making their costly offerings at the dedication of the church. The Church of Saint Sophia at Constantinople is decorated with magnificent mosaics, which show that in Byzantium itself, the stiffening influence of Byzantine pictorial traditions had hardly begun to operate in the sixth century. Three. Not only architecture and mosaic were enlisted in the service of the church, sculpture also came to be applied to Christian uses. The only examples which remain to us of early Christian statues are the marble statuettes of the Good Shepherd in the Lateran Museum, and the bronze figure of Saint Peter in the Great Church at Rome, which bears his name, and the marble statue of Hippolytus, also in the Lateran Museum. Both the statue of Saint Peter, however, and those of the Good Shepherd have been thought to be of pagan origin. But we have abundant remains of early Christian boss reliefs in the decoration of sarcophagi, which seemed to have been set in places where they were open to view. The work of pagan artists was in early days sometimes used to receive the bodies of Christians, and when Christian sculptors were employed, they adapted the style of their pagan predecessors to the treatment of Christian subjects. Nowhere is the rapid decline of art more than in the sarcophagi. The compositions are crowded and ill balanced. The figures are usually ill drawn with short thick bodies, large heads, stiff draperies, and a general absence of dignity and grace. They are rather architectural and pictorial than sculptural or statuesque. They represent scenes from the Bible, Christ and the Apostles, the raising of Lazarus, the story of Jonah, the miracle of the loaves, the healing of the blind, Moses striking the rock, Daniel and the lion's den, and the oldest and most beautiful sarcophagi is that of the prefect Junius Bassus, died 359. The finest, perhaps, of those found in Rome is that of Patronius Probus, died 395, in the subterranean church of St. Peter. Christian sarcophagi have also been found at Arles and at Treves. In the sculptures at Revena, the biblical cycle of illustration is less prominent than elsewhere, but they are richer in decorative work. The cross, the vine, the monogram of Christ, doves and peacocks are frequently repeated around single figures of the Lord and his apostles. Representations of faithful servants of Christ, working or dying in the service of their Lord, so long as they were fitting and reverent, would seem not only innocent but profitable. But, in some cases at least, they came to be regarded with superstitious reverence, and the tendency to give them undue honor was no doubt increased by the belief that sacred pictures had wrought miracles. Christian churches, but he bewails the use which was often made of them, and begs that the Catholic church may not be blamed for the folly of some of her children, who worshiped tombs and pictures, a folly which she herself condemned. Christ and his apostles were to be sought in the sacred books, not on painted walls. Towards the end of the 6th century, Leontius, bishop of Neapolis and Cyprus, discussed the question of the respect paid by Christians to images, with a view to rebut the charges of the Jews. The basins, or genuflection, proscanasis, made by Christians before images was no act of worship, but a symbol of respect, and it was not paid to the mere material image, but to that which the image represents. In the same way, Christians reverence the holy places not as divine in themselves, but as memorials of Christ. Everything depends on the intention of an act of reverence. Thus, the respect paid by Christians to pictures came to be defended by the same arguments which had been used a few generations by the pleaders for pagan idolatry. Christianity was largely diffused without direct missionary effort by the natural intercourse between different parts of the world. It followed the track of the Roman legions and accompanied commerce from shore to shore. Wherever Christians were found, there was found Christian worship, and the curiosity which was excited about the new faith generally led to its extension. But there were also conversions of heathen nations of a different kind. The history of the foundation of the Abyssinian church is strange and romantic. A Christian philosopher of Tyre, named Moropius, undertook a voyage of exploration in the direction of what was then vaguely called India. He was wrecked on the coast of Abyssinia and put to death with the whole of the ship's crew, with the exception of two kinsmen of his, Frementus and Aetisus, who were spared on account of their tender age and sent as slaves to the king of the country. There Aetisus was made the king's cup-bearer and Frementius the chief keeper of the public records. The king before his early death freed the two Tyrian slaves, who were entreated by the widowed queen to take charge of the young king, her son. Frementius in particular acquired great influence which he used to promote the settlement of Christian merchants in the country and to procure freedom of worship. When the king came of age, Aetisus returned to Tyre while Frementius betook himself to Alexandria where he besought Athanasius, then bishop of that sea, to send priests to confirm and strengthen the new colony of the church. Athanasius could defy his no better method than to send Frementius himself as bishop to Abyssinia where he was called Abba Salama. King Azen and his brother were baptized and the faith made rapid progress. During the Arian controversy Frementius remained faithful to the Catholic cause and persuaded the king to reject an Arian patriarch whom the Emperor Constantius wished to force upon him. It has been supposed that the ancient Ethiopic version of the scriptures was made in Abyssinia in the fourth and fifth centuries but from the general character of the version itself this is improbable and the Abyssinians attributed to a later period. Lying remote from the general movement of the world the Abyssinian church has preserved some old customs which have elsewhere become obsolete. As some of these are Judaic it has been supposed that the Abyssinians were converted to Judaism before they adopted Christianity but this seems very improbable. Christianity had already reached Arabia in the previous period. Under Constantius the Arian Theophilus of Deux is said to have had considerable success among the hemiaritic, homerite people in Yemen and to have converted their chief who built three churches. A Catholic king of Abyssinia, a Lesbon is said to have conquered the country and restored orthodoxy in the sixth century. In the fourth and fifth centuries the monks and anchorites made a great impression on the nomad Arabs of the desert who surrounded them. In Persia Christianity had been introduced in the third century and had a metropolitan at Stesiphon the capital city. The revived Persian kingdom of the Sasanian dynasty was however by no means favorable to the faith of Christ. Its monarchs were generally anxious to revive the old Persian religion and when their enemies the Roman emperors became Christian the Persians regarded Christians as friends of Rome. Constantius in the 16th century made representations to Shapur, Sapor in favor of the church within his dominions. A persecution began in the year 343 and lasted with more or less violence to the death of the king in 381. The aged bishop of Stesiphon, Simeon, was one of the first victims of this outbreak. From Shapur's death to the year 414 was an interval of peace and quiet. King Yezdegerd under the influence of Bishop Maruthus of Tagrit was even favorable to the Christians and did all in his power to protect them from injury. This happy state of things was however brought to an end by the fanaticism of Bishop Abdes of Sousa who caused a fire temple of the Persians to be raised to the ground. The king with many reproaches ordered him to rebuild the temple and when he obstinately refused began a persecution which lasted several years and in which many Christians suffered death under horrible torture. Theodosius II however after a victory over Bahram, Varanis, the son and successor of Yezdegerd, stipulated for the cessation of these fearful atrocities and at the same time granted toleration to the Zoroastrians in the empire. In Armenia the gospel was preached at an early date. Gregory the illuminator who is regarded as the apostle of Armenia was succeeded in the primacy by his son Eresthix who sat as bishop in the council of Nicaea and the primacy long remained in his family. Narciss called the great was recognized in the year 366 at the Synod of Valarshipad as patriarch or Catholicus and it was at the same time determined that the head of the Armenian church should no longer be nominated and consecrated by the Archbishop of Caesarea but by the Armenian bishops themselves. Isaac, Sahak, son of Narciss, became patriarch about the year 390 and did much for the extension of the church and for the regulation of its rights and ceremonies. It was in his days that we find the beginning of Christian literature in Armenia. Mezrab, Isaac's lifelong friend had resigned the office of King's secretary in order to free asceticism but at the bidding of his friend had left his solitude to preach the gospel in his native land. While he was thus occupied he found the need of vernacular scriptures in which his converts might read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. Up to this time the elections from the Bible were read to the people in Syriac which they did not understand. This Syriac version Isaac and Mezrab undertook to translate in the year 431 their pupils Joseph and Esnak returned from the Council of Ephesus with a Greek copy of the scriptures Isaac and Mezrab threw aside what they had begun in order to make a version from the Greek but finding themselves insufficiently acquainted with that language they sent Joseph and Esnak with Moses of Corin, Corinensis who is the narrator of these events to study Greek at Alexandria. The result was the extant Armenian version though the present printed text probably contains variations introduced at a later period. End of Chapter 14 Part 1 Chapter 14 Part 2 of History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by Es Chidam. Chapter 14 Growth of the Church Part 2 But the conquests of the church in the East and South are insignificant in their effect upon the history of the world compared with the conversion of the Teutonic tribes. In them was found a fresh and unexhausted stock on which the engrafted word grew and flourished in new life and vigor. The deities of the Teutons were for the most part, like those of the Greeks and Romans, personifications of the powers of nature. The classical writers had indeed no hesitation in identifying these divinities with their own. But there was in the Teutonic mythology nothing of the lightness and frivolity which often appears in the classical. It was grave and solemn, sometimes cruel, and if we may trust the account of Tacitus that the Germans shrank in any attempt to enclose heavenly beings within the walls of temples or to give them the semblance of humanity they were not altogether unprepared to worship him who was invisible. A very marked trait of the Teutonic character was the strong feeling of loyalty which bound every Teuton to his chief. The fealty which they gave to an earthly lord they gave to their heavenly lord and master when he was made known to them. His battles they were ready to fight. The love of freedom, the sense of personal dignity which had been almost lost in the empire through the all-absorbing claims of a despotic state were still in full activity among the Germans. Among such a people the gospel which taught the preciousness of individual souls was likely to find an easy reception. The respect paid by the Teutons to their women also no doubt conduced to the spread of Christianity. It is remarkable in how many princesses bent the hearts of their husbands to the cause of Christ. There were, however, great differences in the religious condition of the various peoples. Among the more remote tribes which came little in contact with foreign influence as the Saxons, the Frisians, and the Danes, paganism was, in the period of which we are now speaking, very vigorous and rooted in the affections of the people. But in the settlements within or on the borders of the empire the superior spiritual and intellectual force of Christianity made itself felt. Even where the Christians were conquered they overcame their vanquishers by the arts of peace as the Greek had once overcome the Roman. It is probable that the race which sprang from the mixture of the invaders with the old inhabitants of the empire was generally Christian. Among the Germans on the Rhine Christianity was introduced at an early date to pass over expressions of ancient writers which are rather rhetorical than exact. Churches appear to have existed at the end of the third century at Travesse, Metz, and Cologne. Maternus, Bishop of Cologne, was one of the commissioners appointed to adjudicate in the matter of the Donatists, and in the following year he appeared at the Council of Orals where appeared also a Gracious, Bishop of Travesse. The date of the origin of the churches at Tongres, Spires, and Maines where Crescentius is said to have been the first Bishop is uncertain though no doubt ancient. On the Danube in Noricum, Retia, and Vindalicia we have more certain accounts of the first planting of Christianity. Probably it made its way through the Roman garrisons and it is in places where there were colonies or stationary camps that we first find it. The oldest church in this region is believed to be ancient Laraicum where Maximilian the martyr was Bishop. Among the martyrs at the beginning of the 4th century we find Victorinus of Petau in Styria and Afra of Augsburg. In Pannonia the seat of a Bishop was fixed at Cermium an occupier of which, Irenaeus, suffered death in the persecution of Diocletian. These however are but scanty gleaning compared with the great harvest which in the course of a few generations was to be brought into the garners of the church. In the early part of the 3rd century a group of loosely connected tribes which had their habitation between the Vistula and the Danube were known to the Romans as Goths. It was in combat with them that the Emperor Decius lost his life. In the days of Valerian and Galenius hordes of Goths pressed into the empire as far as Asia Minor where they destroyed many precious monuments of antiquity among them the famous temple of Diana at Ephesus. After crushing defeats they soon became again formidable and were a constant cause of dread to the empire until Constantine made a definite peace with them and enlisted from their number a body of 40,000 under the imperial banners. Peace lasted so long as the family of Constantine was on the throne. During their incursions into the empire the Goths had carried back with them into their territory many Christian captives including some clergy by whose means many of the captors became Christians. It would even seem that a regular hierarchy was established in their territory for a Gothic bishop subscribed the decrees of the council of Nicaea. But the real founder of Gothic Christianity was one of their own kindred, Wulfilus born about 311 in a Christian family which had been carried away captive in the Gothic territory. He received a name no doubt in familiar use among the Goths. There he grew up under Christian influences speaking Gothic as his native tongue but probably acquainted also with Greek. While still among the Goths he seems to have become a reader in the church but about the year 340 he was sent by the Gothic king as an ambassador to Constantinople and was their consecrated bishop of the Goths probably by the knights of the Arian party to which he always remained attached. He was present at a council at Constantinople in 360 and assented to the creed then set forth which was an attempt to set aside altogether the principal technical terms on which the controversy turned while acknowledging Christ to have been begotten of God the Father before all ages and before all beginning. The declaration of faith however which Wulfilus left behind does not coincide with this or indeed with any other symbol known to us. In this he says nothing of the eternal generation of the Son but describes him as our Lord and God creator and maker of the universe not having any like him. Whatever were the exact fuse of Wulfilus it is beyond question that the Goths among whom he worked with so great success became Arian. When Arianism was dominant in the Empire the pagan chief of the West Goths Athenaric became alarmed at the rapid increase of those whom he regarded as the natural allies of their co-religionists in the Empire and began a persecution. Many Goths suffered loss and injury and even death itself for their faith. It was probably by Wulfilus that the Arian Emperor Constantius was induced to permit the settlement of the Arian Goths on Roman territory. Mingled with their still pagan kindred they passed in great bands over the Danube into Moesia and extended their settlements into the foot of the Hamas range. This was the principal scene of Wulfilus' work but his activity reached also the Goths on the north bank of the Danube where he had the help and support of other missionaries. The number of his converts alarmed Athenaric who persecuted those Goths who remained within his dominion and there were again many martyrs. Frida Jern, however, Athenaric's rival who was anxious to remain for a time in friendship with the Arian Emperor Valens protected the converted Goths and permitted missionary work to go forward unhindered. It was in this period of anxiety and varied fortunes that Wulfilus wrought out the great work which has given him his most enduring title to fame. He gave the Goths the alphabet in which their language was written into the Gothic tongue. The books of kings he left untranslated as he thought the accounts of the wars of the Jews only too likely to inflame the warlike passions of the Goths. This translation is a masterpiece of its kind very faithful to the Greek text but not following it so closely as to do violence to the Gothic idiom. Wulfilus' work on the northern side of the Danube had continued under Frida Jern's protection but a few years when the Goths were driven from their ancient seat by the Huns and settled in large numbers in Thrace under the protection of Valens. Not very long after this migration the hard treatment which they had received from the imperial officials caused war to break out between Goths and Romans a war in which Wulfilus and the Goths who had crossed the Danube with him at the time of the first persecution decided to take no part. In vain Wulfilus attempted to mediate between Frida Jern and Valens. The emperor fell in battle with the Goths at Adrianople and the victors pressed on wasting the land with fire and sword to the Adriatic seaboard and to the very walls of Constantinople. The great Theodosius delivered the empire from its pressing danger and so anxious was he to unite the Goths with the church as well as the empire that he summoned a council at Constantinople in the year 383 when the ecumenical had but just propounded its creed which was to attempt to devise articles of union. Wulfilus attended it but only to find himself branded as a heretic when emperor and council agreed in maintaining unaltered the Constantinopolitan creed the distress which he must have experienced perhaps hastened his end for in the same year he died. There were not wanting however ardent disciples to carry on his work. There remained Arian, a fact which greatly influenced their subsequent history in as much as it introduced an important difference between them and the Catholic inhabitants of the empire which they overran. The Arian dominion led the latter more and more to look for help to the emperor and the pope. Yet the Goths were for the most part merciful conquerors and sovereigns. The capture of Rome by a lyric King of the West Goths sent a shudder throughout the empire that the end of the world had come but the conqueror gave orders to spare the churches and those who had fled to them for refuge while the treasures of the cathedral church were openly carried to a place of safety and when, after his early death his successor Atulf married Gala Placidia the daughter of Theodosius and showed himself friendly to the conquered race even the Romans began to see the promise of a better time. In Spain the invading Goths brought over to Arianism the Suave earlier settlers who had adopted the Catholic faith which they found there. The Vandals who had been permitted by Constantine to settle in Cononia had there been converted to Arianism by missionaries of the West Goths but unlike their teachers who everywhere treated with forbearance the Catholics under their dominion the Vandals bore a fanatical hatred to the adherents of the Nicene faith and persecuted them wherever they had the power. In Africa in particular especially when they were led by King Hanaric they inflicted all imaginable outrages upon the Catholics and their churches. A conference which Hanaric brought about between Orthodox and Arian bishops had no result except to stimulate the Vandal king to fresh violence. After the death of Hanaric the persecution continued under his nephews Gundamund and Thressamund. A milder period followed the death of Hanaric but this period was short for in the year 533 the Vandal power was overthrown by Belisarius and the African province weakened and desolated was restored to the empire. In the middle of the 5th century a large proportion of the Teutonic tribes who were dominant in western Europe belonged to the Arian Confession. This state of things was however completely changed by the conversion of the Franks to Catholic Christianity. Chapter 14 Part 2 Chapter 14 Part 3 of History of the Christian Church during the first 6 centuries. This is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org History of the Christian Church during the first 6 centuries by S. Chidam Chapter 14 Growth of the Church Chapter 14 Growth of the Church Part 3 The Sallian Franks were a powerful Teutonic tribe or rather federation who, pressing southwards from their earlier seat on the lower Rhine had taken possession of the fertile plains on the Mus and the Sambur and had then extended their boundaries to the Somme. This people was led in the latter part of the 5th century by a chieftain of extraordinary who overthrew the Romans under Cyagrius in northeastern Gaul and made himself master of the country up to the Sain. He married Clotilda, the orphaned daughter of the murdered Burgundian king Chilperic who endeavored to win over her pagan spouse to the Catholic Christianity in which she had been reared. But Tlodwig found no satisfaction in the doctrine of a crucified Saviour, though he did very reluctantly consent to the baptism of his infant son. War, however, brought to pass that which peaceful persuasion had in vain attempted. The Alemani, a still pagan tribe, had by great prowess in a series of struggles established themselves in a wide and fruitful territory on both banks of the upper and middle Rhine. Desiring still to extend their territory they invaded that of the neighboring Requarian Franks. The pressing danger led the Frankish tribes to forget their internal dissensions and Tlodwig advanced against his warlike foes at the head of the whole force of the nation. The opposing armies met near Zulpic about twenty miles west of Bonn. The battle was long and bloody and at last the Franks, after terrible losses, seemed to waver. In this strait Tlodwig befought him of the words of his wife who had told him of an almighty God unlike those of wood and stone and vowed that if he conquered he would worship Christ who gives victory to those who trust in him. After this the battle raged with new fury but the Franks gained the upper hand. The king of the Alemani himself fell and his death caused panic among his warriors who fled in confusion towards the Rhine. Flushed with victory Tlodwig returned to Reims where he was met at the gate by his queen Clotilda and the Archbishop Remigius and conducted through the crowded streets to the cathedral where he bowed his haughty head to receive baptism from the hands of the Archbishop. Three thousand of his chief men were received into the Catholic church by baptism after the example of their leader. A portion of the army however refused the yoke of Christ and renounced their allegiance to Tlodwig but returned after some time to his sovereignty. It must be confessed that Tlodwig's baptism did not confer upon him Christian graces of gentleness and mercy. He remained what he had been before, bold, able, cruel and crafty. As after his conversion he showed little or nothing of the spirit of Christianity it has frequently been supposed that it was a mere matter of policy intended to conciliate the Catholic inhabitants of Gaul and to give him a pretext for attacking the Aryan gods. That it had this effect there is no doubt. Still though he did not understand by conversion that change of heart which we associate with the word there seems no reason to doubt that after his rough fashion he was sincerely devoted to Christ who had helped him in his need and that he was proud of his position as the most powerful champion of the faith in Europe. He is not a man whom we should readily suspect of hypocrisy and religion though towards men he was certainly capable of bad faith. But little is known of the conversion of the Concord Alemani. The Franks do not seem to have attempted to bring them by compulsion to the Catholic faith but it was probably by their influence that it was diffused in the Concord territory. Their earliest teacher is said to have been Fridolin a noble Irishman, the reputed founder of the monastery of Second Gen on an island in the Rhine above Basil. Certainly when the Alemanic Code of Laws was written up about 630 the nation appears to be Christian. The Burgundians, a Teutonic tribe inhabiting the banks of the Elbe were driven westward by the pressure of the Huns and in the end came to occupy a considerable territory in southeastern Gaul. They had been converted under Catholic influence and lived on a footing of Christian brotherhood with the Concord race. They seem, however, to have lapsed into Arianism. These also were overthrown by Chladwig in the battle near Dijon and 23 years later their dominions were added to the Frankish Kingdom. Meantime they had been brought back to Catholicism by the strenuous efforts of Avitus, the famous Bishop of Vienna, and an Orthodox Council was held at Epeion in the year 511 to regulate the affairs of the Burgundian Church. To a man of Chladwig's character it was natural to regard love for the Catholic Church and the treading down of temples as one and the same thing. The West Goths occupied a large portion of southern Gaul. I cannot bear, said the Frankish King, that these Arians should be masters in a part of Gaul. Let us go and, with God's help, conquer them and bring their land into our own power. He conquered them and took possession of the country up to the Pyrenees, thus becoming lord over almost the whole of Gaul. Beyond the Pyrenees the West Goths, who had been practically masters of the country from the beginning of the 5th century, were still Arian, but the older inhabitants retained their Catholic faith and were sufficiently numerous and powerful to be a constant danger to their Arian lords, a danger which was much increased when the Frankish champions of Catholicism extended their dominions to the Spanish frontier. For the Catholic Spaniards would be the natural allies of a Catholic invader. Various attempts were made by the Arian kings to compel their subjects to adopt to their own creed and enter their own church in vain. At last King Rekha red, under the guidance of Leander, the excellent Bishop of Seville, took the opposite policy. In a council summoned by himself at Toledo in the year 589 he declared that he felt himself obliged for the honor of God and the welfare of his people to receive fully the Orthodox faith and the Holy Trinity on behalf of himself and the nation, including the Swevy who were among his subjects. From this time Arianism made but feeble attempts to lift its head in Spain. Thus by the end of the 6th century Catholic princes ruled from the Rhine to the Atlantic. Arianism was indeed almost extinct in Europe except that the Lombards who in 568 had established themselves in the northern region of Italy did not relinquish their Arianism and Paganism until the following century. Rulers like Theodoric, the East Goth, had found it possible to live on good terms with their Catholic subjects, but they had not attempted to unite them in one polity with their own nation. With the Franks we first find that fusion of races which in the end caused the conquering Tutans to adopt the rustic Roman speech of the conquered Gauls. From the time of Chladwig we find men of Tutonic stock in the ministry of the church, hitherto the privilege of the Romanized inhabitants. At the Council of Orleans in 511 we find among the 32 subscribing bishops two Tutonic names and at that which was held at the same place 38 years later, 8 Tutans appear among the 68 subscribers. Afterwards the proportion becomes higher. But the old Roman cultivation of the Galican clergy, even in its K, asserted its power. Indispensable for the conduct of the administration, the bishops became more and more involved in politics and secular business generally. The most remarkable product of the Romano-Galican cultivation of this period was Gregory of Tours, the Frank Herodotus. Georgius Florentius, who called himself Gregorius after his maternal grandfather, the canonized bishop of Longgrace, was born about the year 540 of a senatorial family at Arverna, now Clermont-Ferrand. He became deacon in his native town, but his remarkable gifts soon made him conspicuous. The kings employed him in the business of the state and he was chosen bishop of Tours with the ascent of all, high and low, clergy and lady. In his sea, while he gave much attention to the secular matters of which he was so distinguished a master, he proved himself a true shepherd of God committed to his charge. Tours, the city of Saint Martin, was at that time, in fact, the ecclesiastical metropolis of Gal and the influence of its able archbishop was felt far and wide. Under King Chilparic, Gregory valiantly defended the rites of the church against the encroachments of secular tyranny. To King Childebert he was counselor and friend in all the difficulties which he had to encounter. He was first born in the year 594. His history of the Franks of the greatest value for his own time is a curious mixture of history and legend. To him history is the narrative of God's power working in the world and in this point of view the miracles of the saints are at least as important as the overthrow of those who are without God. The Orthodox Chladwig is always victorious while heretical kings come to nothing. Gregory desired to write classical Latin but the country's speech which he heard around him frequently betrays itself and supplies us with interesting examples of the way in which the tongue of old Rome was gradually changed into the modern romance languages. But as the Roman culture in Gal died out bishoprics and abysses fell into the hands of ruder men. Ecclesiastics received benefits from the crown which were a cause of embarrassment for as the crown often claimed the power of recalling what it had given a system of grants tended to make the prelates subservient to the king. On the other hand when the crown as was sometimes the case sought the aid of the bishops against its unruly feudatories they in their turn naturally used the opportunity to gain concessions for themselves. In the election of bishops the choice of the clergy and people was little regarded during the Meravingian period in comparison with the will of the king. The lands of the church were subject to tribute and the cultivators bound to service in war. Even bishops took the field and bore arms. Councils were not assembled without the consent of the king and their cannons had no force without his sanction. And as ecclesiastical affairs came to be dealt with in the great council of the nation where both clergy and laity were present synods of the clergy alone declined in importance. Bishops were however very powerful persons. They exercised in many cases judicial functions and their excommunication was much dreaded both for its spiritual and its temporal consequences. Over their own clerks in particular who were frequently drawn from the vassal class for the free warriors did not generally find the clerical state attractive. They exercised almost despotic power but they were themselves responsible to the king. If one of us said Gregory of Tours to Chilperic turns aside from the way of righteousness he can be corrected by thee. But if thou turnest aside who shall admonish thee? In this state of things as may be readily supposed the power of the sea of Rome was little regarded. The pope was reverenced as the chief bishop of Christendom but in the period with which we are now concerned there is little trace of his interference with the church. End of Chapter 14 Part 3 Chapter 14 Part 4 of History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by S. Chidom. Chapter 14 Growth of the Church Part 4 The Britons under the Roman Dominion seem to have gained a high degree of civilization. The foundations and the mosaic pavements of handsome villas are found in the south of England as frequently as in the Rhineland and the higher school training passed on from the Gauls to their kindred beyond the Strait. In the time of Hadrian, said the satirist, British pleaders learned to the art of speaking from Thule, meaning probably the Shetlins, was thinking of engaging a tutor. Zutark tells us of a conversation which he had with a Greek teacher whom he met at Delphi who was on his way home from Britain to Tarsus. It is probable from such instances that the educated classes may have to some extent have adopted the Roman tongue as we know was the case in Gaul. There is abundant testimony to the existence of a regular church in Britain in Roman times in communion with the church throughout the world. Our remote island had learned the power of the word and had its churches and altars. There, too, was a theology founded on scripture. There were heard the denunciations and the promises of the gospel. It is even probable that the British had their own Latin translation of the scriptures. Britain worshipped the same religion as India and India. British pilgrims visited the holy places in the east from the end of the fourth century onwards. Constantine included the British bishops in his invitation to the Council of Nicaea, and Athanasius testifies that British bishops assented to its conclusions. At the Council of Sardica, Britons were numbered among those who acquitted Athanasius. In 1853-58 to the Orthodoxy of Britain, but in the following year the British prelates who were present at Remini were coaxed and bullied, like the great majority of their brethren, into giving their assent to the inorthodox formula of the Council which met there. We learn incidentally that three of the British bishops on account of their poverty accepted the imperial allowance which the rest of the Britons of life, the history of the British church in Roman times is almost a blank. No scrap of writing of any inhabitant of Britain in that age has come down to us. The rhetorical exaggeration of Gildus in the sixth century and the legends written down by Neneus if this be indeed the name of a real person, at some later date. The scanty entries in the Saxon Chronicle, a few particulars which bead in the eighth century gave of a church which had already vanished from the greater part of the island, these are all the literary materials which we have for a history of the ancient British church. And archeological research helps us little. We have a few remains of perhaps some six or eight Romano-British churches and some forty or fifty sepulchral slabs and objects of various kinds of the Roman period are thought to bear indications of Christianity. Perhaps no church in the world has left in the region once occupied so few traces of its existence. Probably, as seems to be indicated by the poverty of its bishops at Romani, the British church was poor, its churches for the most part slight buildings of wood and its art rudimentary. Its vessels of precious metal and its books no doubt banished in the Saxon storm. It may be that its history was uneventful. It seems to have been little hurt by persecution. Albin and his companions suffered for the faith in the bad days of Diocletian. This must not be supposed to indicate any general massacre for we have the expressed testimony of Lactantius and Eusebius contemporary witnesses that the division of the empire over which Constantius bore sway enjoyed calm while the rest of the world was beaten with the tempest. The principal event in the internal history of this church which remains on record is connected with the Pallagian heresy. Pallagius, though a Briton does not appear to have propagated his peculiar opinions in his native island. They were introduced by Agricola, the son of a Pallagian bishop, from Gaul. In this trouble a deacon named Palladius, probably a Briton, induced Pope Colustinus to send to Britain Germanus, Bishop of Auxaire who was accompanied by Lupus, Bishop of Troyer. These excellent men preaching not only in the churches but in the streets and lanes and fields strengthened the Catholics in the faith and convinced Gainsayers. During his visit, Germanus is said to have led a body of newly baptized Britons against the pagan Picts and Saxons and with a loud shout of alleluia at the moment of onset to have gained a great victory over them at a place near Mold in Plyncher which still retains the name German's Field. The same heresy, however, broke out again and about the year 447 the good Germanus, then an old man was again summoned to give peace to the island. This time he was accompanied by Severus, Bishop of Travesse, and the efforts of the two were so successful that the heretical leaders were expelled and from that time the Catholic faith in the island remained inviolate. From the middle of the fifth century a dark cloud covered Britain for about a hundred years. From the time when the Romans gave up the island, perhaps earlier Saxons had settled here and there on the coast, but in 449 they landed in force in Kent and began to push their conquests inland. The contest between the natives and the invaders was very different from that on the continent. There one or two battles generally sufficed to make the two towns masters of the country. They settled down as rulers without uprooting all its social institutions. Here the fight lasted for several generations. So late as the year 584 we find the Britons still valiantly resisting in the west. The result of this long period of war and unrest was that the Britons were exterminated or reduced to slavery in the south and center of the country and the remains of Romano-British civilization annihilated by the pagan invaders. The church however survived though with a much diminished territory in the Cambrian mountains where the Britons still worship God in their churches in the ancient tongue of their forefathers. In Cumbria, in Cornwall and perhaps in Armoraca the little Britain beyond the sea which we now call Brittany. As was natural when the British Christians were almost cut off from the continent by the massive pagan intruders they retained several customs which had either been abandoned by the British church in general or had been always peculiar to themselves. They differed as to the time of their Easter, their form of baptism and of ordaining bishops and their tonsure. Before it was swept away from the most important portion of its old domain the British church had already begun the great work of Christianizing its pagan neighbors. Saint Nenean or Neneas a bishop of British race in the fifth century reached the gospel to the southern Picts Celts who had never been brought under the dominion of the Romans and who were consequently in a much ruder state than their kinsmen within the empire. Among these he built a church of stone a strange site to the Britons at Whithorn in Galloway where he placed his Episcopal seat in which he dedicated in the name of Saint Martin of Tours whom he had probably visited there he died and was buried. Probably his work had little permanent effect for the district appears to have been pagan when Columba reached its shores towards the end of the sixth century. During the time when the British church was enjoying quietness under the Roman peace which restrained the warring tribes the great island to the west of it was still lying in darkness. It was called by Greek writers Yern by the Latins Hibernia and Juverna but from the fifth century for many generations it bore the name of Scotia, Scotland and its inhabitants were Scots from that tribe of Malaysian settlers who came most in contact with their neighbors on the eastern side of the Hibernian sea. The early Irish poems and romances give the impression that even before the advent of Christianity there was in the island an ancient civilization of a type different from that of the Romans and even from that of the Celts of Britain or the continent. Early in the fifth century however a missionary went probably from our shores to the western island. All that is really known of him is that it is recorded under the year 431 that Palladius the same who induced Pope Colestinus to send Germanus to the Britons was himself ordained by that Pope and sent as their first bishop to the Scots who believed in Christ. Palladius tells us that he passed from Hibernian to Britain where he died in the land of the Picts. Of his work we have no history but a cloud of legend has gathered round him as was natural where little was known. But all previous mission work in Ireland was thrown into the shade by that of St. Patrick who was universally reverenced as the apostle of Ireland. This great saint was like St. Paul, freeborn. His father was Calpurnius Deacon who was also a Decurio one of the council that is of a municipium who was son of Potibius the son of Odysseus a presbyter. He was born he tells us at Bannavem Tibernier a place of which nothing is known except that since it had Decurions it must have been within the empire. It was probably on the west coast of Britain south of the wall of Antoninus wherever it was when he was 13 years of age he was carried off by marauders with his father's men servants and maid servants and thousands of others to Ireland. There a beardless boy rough on tot he herded the cattle of his master and prayed. In answer to his prayers he heard a voice in the night telling him that he would return to his native land. He found a ship and was carried over the sea to the home of his parents who rejoiced that among them he could not rest. He heard his old companions in the western isle calling on him to return and an inward voice warned him that he was to become a bishop. He proposed to go to preach the gospel to those whom he had left behind. Friends naturally dissuaded him from rushing again into peril among a people that knew not God but he withstood their prayers. He had vowed to God to teach the pagans even to the loss of life itself to him. He returned and God gave him grace he says in his simple way to convert many people and ordain many clergy. In particular he tells us more than once of the number of his converts who devoted themselves to the ascetic life. Young Scots became monks and chieftains daughters innumerable became handmaids of Christ. St. Patrick's work succeeded but not without suffering. He carried his life in his hand and always looked for death, captivity or slavery. Chieftains seized him and his companions with a view to kill them. On at least one occasion a body of the newly baptized still in their white raiment were butchered or lead captive. Christians were sold to heathen Picts. Baptized women and the lands of orphans were distributed to the boon companions of chiefs. How long his work in Ireland lasted is uncertain as the dates given to his death vary from 457 to 493. Nor is it known where or by whom he was ordained. He himself in his confession tells us nothing on this point though he seems to imply that there was some opposition to his consecration as bishop. The ancient hymn of St. Sechnal gives the impression that he received his apostleship like St. Paul direct from heaven. Some ancient authorities describe him as spending some time with St. Germannus of Auxaire and as being ordained by him but nothing of this appears to be known to Constantius, Germannus's almost contemporary biographer. According to some accounts Germannus sent him to Rome to be ordained by Colestinus himself while again Colestinus is described as causing him to be ordained by the priest king Amotho but Prosper, the Pope's secretary knows nothing of any connection of Colestinus with Patrick He records the mission of Palladius and the author of the life of Colestinus in the Lieber Pontificalis is equally silent. It has been pointed out that St. Patrick laid special stress on the inclination of the Scots of Ireland to the ascetic life a circumstance which gave so great prominence to the monasteries which sprang up in all parts of the country that the ecclesiastical system established there may be described as monastic rather than diocesan. A monastery rather than an Episcopal sea was regarded as the center of the ecclesiastical life and organization for a district. Sometimes the abbot was himself a bishop, sometimes he had among his monks a bishop who was under his jurisdiction and performed Episcopal offices for the monastery and its dependent district a state of things probably scarcely to be found elsewhere though bishop monks existed in the churches of St. Denis in France. The greatest promoter of monasticism in Ireland was Brigitte now known as St. Brigitte or St. Bride who is said to have been born of noble blood at Fowger near Dundock about the year 453. There is a legend that in her infancy the house in which she was blazed with light and yet nothing was burned a story which has led some to suppose that traits which originally belonged to the myth of a fire goddess referred to the saint and it is stated that the Celtic goddess who was the patron of smiths was named Brigitte the fiery arrow Geraldus Cabrensus tells us that at Kildare St. Brigitte had a perpetual fire watched by twenty nuns. All that we know of her early life indicates vigor of character and sweetness of disposition and an old hymn speaks of her as a marvelous ladder for pagans to visit the kingdom of Mary's son and she refused marriage and at last her father permitted her to dedicate herself to the Lord. The great event of her life was the foundation of the monastery of Kildare for men and women which soon had many affiliated establishments in all parts of the country. Brigitte like other heads of convents had her own bishop and with him she governed the other houses of her rule together with their bishops. She is believed to have died at Kildare on January 523 on which day she is commemorated in the calendar having earned by her works and her character the title of the Mary of Ireland. Churches dedicated to St. Bride in all parts of the British Islands testify to the widespread reverence of her name. Christianity found a congenial soil in Ireland. Her warm hearted and emotional people received with eagerness the story of the self-sacrifice of Christ who followed him. After the time of St. Patrick there was little or no persecution. They had a natural bent towards poetry and art and this was readily turned to Christian subjects. Their songs soon came to celebrate Christian saints instead of pagan heroes. Nowhere perhaps was the whole literature of a country more distinctly influenced by the teaching of the Church while retaining its own national character and the remote situation of Ireland in spiritual and intellectual development. While Britain and the continent were overwhelmed by the Teutonic invasion she enjoyed calm and became a light to lighten the mainland of Europe as well as her nearer neighbors. The earliest of the great Scado-Irish missionaries was St. Columba. He was born in Ireland probably in the year 521 of a noble family connected with the Dalryads of Caledonia and is thought to have begun the foundation of monasteries of which the chief were Duro and Derry about the year 544 when he had received priests' orders. Various reasons among which it is difficult to distinguish the true one are given for his leaving Ireland. Whatever the cause in the year 563 the 42nd of his age he crossed the strait in a frail bark of wicker covered with hides and landed with 12 companions on the small isle of I, Hai, or Iona afterwards known as Ilkham Kil the isle of Columba's cell separated by a narrow strait from the larger island of Mull. There he founded a monastery and made it the center when he and his followers preached the gospel to the Picts and revived religion among the Scots who were already to some extent Christian. Hai was thenceforth his chief abode but he was too fully possessed by the eager spirit and urged so many of his countrymen to distant travel to remain quietly in one house. He and his monks undertook many journeys penetrating it is thought as far north as Inverness and as far east as Aberdeen so far as we know it was he who first taught Christianity north of the Clyde and the Tay. He also frequently visited Ireland to take the oversight of the monasteries of his foundation. The chronology of this period is somewhat obscure but it is probable that he died after a life of constant activity on June 9, AD 597. If this is correct the Celtic apostle of Caledonia died in the very year in which Augustine set foot on the shore of Kent. A goodly company of disciples carried on Columba's work. The monastery of Iona like other Celtic foundations of that age had its bishop subject to the abbot for centuries it was the nursery of bishops, the center of education the asylum of religion the ecclesiastical metropolis of the Celtic race. During those two centuries its abbot retained an undisputed supremacy over all the monasteries in churches of Caledonia and over those of half Ireland. A rule bearing the name of Columba is extant in the old Irish tongue but this is almost certainly a later production of some It is clear that the Scotto-Irish church was developed in perfect independence of Rome for it held for many generations customs such as the predominance of abbots over bishops a peculiar Easter and a peculiar tonsure which Rome when it had the power put down. In the end the Celtic churches were absorbed by the Roman. It is curious to reflect that if they had been able to maintain their position the numerous missionaries who went forth from this island might have propagated on the continent a non-Papal Christianity and Boniface might never have brought Germany under the dominion of the supreme pontiff. In that case as the dissensions between the empire and the church were for centuries the leading events in Europe the whole course of medieval history would have been changed. It is conceivable that the reformation of the 16th century largely occasioned as it was by the hatred felt by the two tons for Italian ecclesiastics might never have been required or might have taken an entirely different course. But it is idle to attempt to write the history of that which might have been. End of Chapter 14 Part 4 Chronological Table of History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by S. Cheatham Chronological Table BC 31 Augustus Emperor BC 4 Date questionable birth of Jesus Christ AD 14 Tiberius Emperor 27 Date questionable 30 Date questionable Death Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord The Great Day of Pentecost 36 Date questionable The Seven Appointed Death of Saint Stephen Saint Philip at Samaria Simon Magus Conversion of Saint Paul 42 Date questionable Gospel preached to Gentiles at Antioch Saint Peter baptizes Cornelius 44 Saints Paul and Barnabas in Antioch 48 Saint Paul in Asia Minor Judaizers at Antioch 50 Conference at Jerusalem 51-58 Saint Paul's Journeys 58 Saint Paul at Jerusalem Imprisonment 61 63 Release of Saint Paul and Renewed Activity 64 Burning of Rome, Nero Christians persecuted Death of Saint James the Less Bishop of Jerusalem Saint John at Ephesus 68 Date questionable Death of Saint Peter and Saint Paul 70 Jerusalem captured and destroyed by Titus Christian community at Pella 81 Domitian Emperor Saint John in Patmos questionable Teaching of Saryntas 90 Apollonius of Tiana 95 Epistle of Clement of Rome 98 Trajan Emperor Death of Saint John questionable 101 Date questionable Book of Elcazai 107-117 Deaths of Simeon of Jerusalem and Ignatius of Antioch 111 Christians in Bethenia Trajan's Rescript 117 Hadrian Emperor Edict against Christian Baiting The Gnostics, Basilites and Ceternanus teach 130 Date questionable Apologies of Quadratus and Aristides Montanus teaches 138 Antoninus Pius Emperor 145 Date questionable Hermes Pastor 147 Date questionable Justin Martyr's Apologies 148 Date questionable Martyrdom of Justin Martyr 150 Date questionable Cereca 175 Praxeus teaches 177 Apologies of Athenagoras and Molito 178 Iranius Bishop of Leons 180 Apologies of Theophilus and Minucius Felix Phygesipus writes 190 Tertullian ordained presbyter 193 Septimus Severus Emperor Cereca 198 Tertullian's Apology Cereca 200 Noatus teaches Cereca 202 Iranius dies Clement Head of Alexandrian School 203 Severe persecution in Alexandria and North Africa Origin, aged 18 begins to teach in Alexandria Cereca 210 Caius the Roman presbyter writes Cereca 215 Sebellius teaches 218 Callistus Bishop of Rome Question of heretical baptism arises Cereca 220 Hippolytus writes Cereca 238 Manny Manicheus begins to teach 246 Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria 248 Cyprian Bishop of Carthage Cereca 249 Origin writes against Celsus 249 Deceus Emperor Cereca 250 Besides the higher orders Subdeacons, Alkyliths, Exorcists, Readers and Doorkeepers are found 250 Edict against Christians Severe persecution Controversy as well Severe persecution Controversy as to the Scism of Felicimus and Novatis at Carthage 251 Scism of Novatianus at Rome 253 Valyrian Emperor Persecution 254 Origin dies 256 Council at Carthage St. Cyprian and St. Lawrence 260 Hall of Samosota teaches Cereca 270 Gregory Thalmaturgus dies St. Anthony becomes a hermit 277 Manny put to death Cereca 280 Porphyry writes against Christianity 284 Diocletian Emperor 19 years peace Cereca 290 Dorotheus and Lucian at Antioch 302 Gregory the Illuminator Bishop in Armenia 303 Three edicts against Christians Diocletian reluctant 304 Fourth and more severe edict Cereca 304-8 Lactantius writes 305 Diocletian and Maximian Abdicate Galerius carries on the persecution Arnobius writes 306 Maletian Schism 311 Edict of Toleration Schism at Carthage 312 Battle of the Milvian Bridge Constantine Master of the Western Empire 313 Constantine and Licinius issue the Edict of Milan 314-321 Measures of Constantine favoring the Church 314 Synod of Arles Decides against Carthaginian Schismatics 315 Donatist Schismatical Bishop of Carthage 316 Donatists appeal to Constantine Cereca 320 Arius teaches at Alexandria that the Son of God is not co-eternal with the Father 323 Constantine overcomes Licinius and becomes sole Emperor 325 Foundation of New Rome afterwards called Constantinople Constantine summons the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea Creed adopted asserting the co-eternity and consubstantiality of the Son with the Father an Aryan party formed Pacomius founds Egyptian monasticism 326 Halina in Palestine 327 Frementius converts the Ethiopians 328 Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria 330 Dedication of New Rome 335 Athanasius deposed by the Synod of Tyre Synobium at Tiberna 330 336 Athanasius exiled Marcellus of Ancyra deposed from his sea Death of Arius Julius becomes Pope 337 Death of Constantine Constans Emperor of the West and Constantius Emperor of the East favor Aryanism Donatist outrages in Africa 340 Rise of the Audians 341 Ancient Antioch decrees the deposition of Athanasius and draws up four formularies of faith Monasticism becomes known in Rome and is introduced into Syria and Palestine by Hilarion 343 Persecution of Christians in Persia by Sapor II will fill us the apostle of the Goths made Bishop 344 Councils of Sardica and Apollos the former acquits the letter condemns Athanasius 345 Council at Antioch the Prolex exposition Photonus condemned 346 Athanasius returns to Alexandria 348 Paulus and Macarius Imperial commissioners attempt to restore peace in Africa Donatist exiled 350 Antius sole emperor persecution of Gothic Christians will fill us in Nicopolis Theophilus of Dew in Arabia 351 Synod at Sermium First Sermian formula Photonus deposed 352 Liberius becomes Pope 353 Anti-Nicene Synod at Arles Athanasius condemned as a rebel 355 Synod at Milan Liberius of Rome Hilary of Poitiers Lucifer of Cagliari and others driven into exile 356 Athanasius flees into the wilderness 357 Arian Council at Sermium Second Sermian formula circa 358 Rule of Saint Basil 358 Third Sermian formula describes probably the Second Sermian formula 359 Council at Romini Majority at First Nicene Council at Nice adopts substantially the Second Sermian formula which is then accepted at Romini 360 Council at Constantinople adopts the formula of Nice Use of Ussia and Upostasis forbidden Arianism apparently dominant 361 Death of Constantius Julian succeeds in attempts to revive paganism which after his time steadily declines Athanasius returns to Alexandria 362 Council at Alexandria attempts to restore union to the church Luciferian Schism at Antioch Epulinaris teaches 363 Julian dies and is succeeded by Jovian Synod at Antioch 364 Valentinian the First Emperor in the West Valens and Arian in the East 366 Damasus Pope Narciss Catholicus of Armenia Basil the Great Gregory of Nisa Gregory of Naziansis and Cyril of Jerusalem are prominent as defenders of the faith Circa 368 Frementius in Abyssinia Circa 370 Renewed persecution of Christian Goths will feel us begins his translation of the Bible Circa 370 Basil's Hospital at Caesarea Antidocomarianites Circa 372 Council of Laodicea Canon made on Scripture 373 Death of Athanasius 374 Ambrose chosen as Bishop of Milan 375 The Emperor Gratian renounces the title of Pontifix Maximus Apollonaris becomes Schismatic Priscillaeantists in Spain Questionable 378 Death of Valens 379 Theodosius Emperor of the East Favors Orthodoxy In the West Justina Mother of Valentin II Supports Arianism Synod at Serragosa Condems the Priscillaenists 381 Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople Reaffirms the Nicene Creed Condems the Tenets of Apollonaris Helvidius denies the perpetual virginity of St. Mary 382 Jerome in Rome 383 Will feel us dies in Constantinople 384 Protests against the removal of the altar of victory from the Senate House at Rome 385 Ceresius becomes Pope The earliest genuine Papal Decretals are his Injoined celibacy of the clergy Execution of Priscillaen and two adherents Theophilus made Bishop of Alexandria 387 Augustine baptized 388 Death of Justina 384 Circa 388 Jovinian denies the merit of asceticism 389 Jovinian's Opinions on Baptism Condemned 393 Donatist Council in Africa 394 Epiphanius in Palestine Beginning of Origenistic Controversy 395 Honorius Emperor in the West Arcadius in the East 395 Augustine Bishop of Hippo Simeon Stylites 397 Death of Ambrose John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople 398 Rufinus and Jerome Intervene in Origenistic Controversy 400 Persecution of Christians in Persia Begins Hostility of Theophilus 400 Date Questionable A Synod at Alexandria Condemns Origen's Books End of First Period of Origenistic Controversy 401 Date Questionable Neneus among the Picts 402 Innocent the First Pope The Synod of the Oak Deposes Christostom, Who is Exiled 403 Christostom Recalled 404 Synod at Carthage Intreats the Emperor to Put down Schismatical Assemblies The Self-Sacrifice of Telemachus Puts an End to Gladiatorial Combats 405 Jerome Complets His Translation of the Bible Pelagius at Rome Cassian Founds Convents near Marseilles Edicts of Honorius Against Donatists 407 Rome Dies in Exile 410 The West Gauss Under Alaric Take Rome 411 Conference with the Donatists in Carthage Pelagius and His Disciple Celestius in Africa 413 A Council at Carthage Condems the Opinions of Celestius 414 Severe Edicts Against Donatists Persecution Renewed in Persia 415 Synod at Diaspolis Pronounces Pelagius Orthodox 416 Synods at Carthage and Malevis Condemn Pelagius St. Augustine writes Against His Opinions 417 Pope Zosimus Restores Pelagius and Celestius to Communion 418 Council at Carthage Again Condems Pelagianism And Forbids Appeals to Rome 428 This Rejects the Expression Mother of God 429 Vandal Conquest of North Africa Pelagianism in Britain Mission of Germanus and Lupus 430 A Roman Synod Under Celestinus Declars Nestorius Heretical Cyril's Anathematisms Death of Augustine Monks of Southern Gaul Oppose His Predestinarian Opinions 431 Council of Ephesus Condems Nestorius and Celestius Counter-Council Condems Cyril Prosper of Aquitaine Defends Augustinianism Mission of Pelagius to Ireland 432 St. Patrick Returns to Ireland And Begins the Work of Conversion 433 Antiochian Confession Circa 434 Vincentius's Cmonitorium 435 Nestorius Banished Nestorian School at Edessa And in Persia 444 Utikis Teaches that the Humanity in Christ Is Completely Absorbed in the Divinity Circa 445 The Book Prodestinatus Published 447 Date Questionable 1st Council of Toledo The Holy Spirit 2nd Visit of Germanus to Britain 448 Utikis Condemned by a Synod at Constantinople 449 The Band of Brigands at Ephesus The Tome of Leo Hagan Saxons Land in Kent 451 Ecumenical Council at Chelsedon Recognizes Cyril as Orthodox Defines that our Lord is Of one Essence with the Father As touching his Godhead Of one Essence with us As touching his manhood Deposes Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria Monophysite Troubles begin in Palestine 452 Violence of the Party of Dioscorus in Alexandria Rogations instituted by Memertus at Vien 457 Leo I Emperor Easter Cycle of Victorious at Aquitaine 467 Saint Bridgette Founds the Monastery of Kildare 469 Laura of St. Sabbath Founded 470 The Monophysite Peter the Fuller Bishop of Antioch adds to the Trisagian God who was crucified for us 470 A Penitentiary Priest Appointed at Rome 474 Zeno Emperor 455 Synod at Arles condemns Predestinarianism 482 Zeno's Hennodecan Intended to put an end to the Monophysite Troubles 491 Anastasius Emperor 496 Battle of Zulpic Baptism of Chladwig 500 The Burgundians conquered by the Franks 511 Council at Apean 514 Antimonophysite Riots at Constantinople 518 Justin Emperor Orthodoxy Triumphant 520 Renewal of Originistic Controversy 527 Justinian Emperor 529 St. Peter St. Peter 529 Council at Orange affirms Augustinian Doctrine Benedict founds the monastery of Monte Cassino 530 Sabbath at Constantinople against Originists 532 Easter Cycle of Dionysius Exeguis 532 Building of Saint Sophia at Constantinople 533 Choose the Vandals in Africa 538 Vigilius Pope 540 Cassiodorus founds the Monasterium Vivar Jens 544 Justinian's Tria Capitula 547 Breviarium of Canon La by Fulgentus Ferendus 548 Vigilus's Judicatum 549 Illyrian Council opposes the Emperor so also 550 an African Council 553 Ecumenical Council at Constantinople confirms the Emperor's edicts strikes out the name of Vigilius from the Diptyx Condemnation of Origin attributed by some to this Council 554 Vigilius accepts the Decree of the Council of Christ Schism becomes permanent Circa 563 Saint Columba at Iona 573 Gregory Bishop of Tours 589 Council at Toledo affirms the Catholic faith first appearance of Filioche in the so-called Nicene Creed End of Chronological Table End of History of the Christian Church during the first six centuries by S. Cheedome