When Augustine died in 430, the Vandals were at the gates of Hippo. While the Council of Chalcedon was in progress in 451, Leo the Great was negotiating with the Huns to save Italy from their ravages. Western history was dominated in the fifth and sixth centuries by the movement of (principally) Germanic peoples into the territory of the old Roman Empire. The accompanying displacements and interchanges of population had a profound effect on Christianity in the western regions.
Medieval civilization was built up from the culture of the later Roman Empire (especially Roman literature, law, and governmental institutions), the customs of Germanic peoples, and the church with its faith and practices (specifically the theology of Augustine and the preeminence of the papacy).
The Byzantine civilization, in contrast, was built up from the culture of ancient Greece, the institutions of the Roman state, the customs of the Hellenized peoples of the Near East, and Christianity.
I. WHEN DID THE MIDDLE AGES BEGIN?#
Periodization is helpful for getting a handle on major changes in history, but the continuities in history make the assignment of exact dates for these changes somewhat arbitrary.
The beginning of the Middle Ages is often taken as equivalent to the fall of Rome, but other factors were involved. There was a gradual but steady decline in the institutions of the Roman world from the third to the eighth centuries that makes an exact dating difficult.
Various dates for the beginning of the Middle Ages have been proposed:
330, when Constantine moved the capital to Byzantium, but Rome had already ceased to be an administrative capital. This event was significant for church and cultural history.
395, the death of Theodosius I, the last of the great emperors. There was no effective single ruler after him, and the administration of the empire was never again reunited under one head.
410, when Alaric sacked Rome, an event that sent considerable shock waves across the Roman world.
451, the date of the Council of Chalcedon, sometimes taken in the history of doctrines as the end of the Patristic Age.
476, when the last emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. This event was long taken as the symbolic event marking the end of the Roman Empire. Since the Roman Empire still continued in Constantinople, however, contemporaries apparently did not mark it as all that significant.
604, the death of Pope Gregory I, an alternative to 451 in patristic studies, so as to include this “doctor of the church” in the patristic period.
Seventh and eighth centuries—when Arabs swept around the Mediterranean, limiting contacts based on trade and travel across the Mediterranean between East and West, and weakening the cultural continuity of the region.
754, when Pope Stephen II anointed Pippin as king of the Franks, an event marking the turn of Rome’s attention to the West instead of to the Mediterranean and the East.
Various factors have provided the basis of theories concerning the decline of ancient civilization:
Political — the decline of the role of cities, the weakening of government by civil wars and military emperors in the third century, the bureaucracy at the expense of the senate that continued in the reorganization of Diocletian and Constantine.
Economic — the failure of industry, the decline of trade, the turn to a “house economy,” the impoverishment of the soil (which has been disproved).
Biological — some form of racial degeneration (for which there is no proof).
Christianity — turning human attention to another world and draining off the best minds from affairs of state (but most of the faults attributed to Christianity existed apart from Christianity). 5. Social—higher classes, who were the custodians of classical culture, were overwhelmed by the illiterate masses.
Military — constant wars on the frontiers so that “Roman civilization did not die a natural death; it was murdered.”
The principal factors that produced a new situation, from a church history standpoint, for the western Middle Ages have already been examined in previous chapters:
Constantine — the state-church that emerged in the fourth century, an alliance of the government with Christianity, and the consequent large-scale conversion of half-instructed people.
Augustine — the theological reconstruction of Augustine that gave a new pattern of thinking for Western Christians.
Monks and popes — the development of monasticism and the papacy as the dominant religious and social institutions.
To these factors another may be added:
- Missions — the conversion of Germanic peoples to a form of Christianity.
II. THE MIGRATION OF NATIONS IN THE WEST#
The Germanic incursions of the fifth century were but the first of four great waves of migration and invasion to sweep into the territory of the old Roman Empire:
the Germans especially in the fifth century,
the Mongol Vars and the Slavs into the Balkans beginning in the sixth century,
the Muslim Arabs beginning in the seventh century, and
the Northmen or Vikings from Scandinavia in the eighth to the tenth centuries.
The resulting ethnic, cultural, and religious changes produced significant developments affecting the history of the church.
The fifth century was the culmination of a long process of somewhat controlled immigration in which the Germans found land, settled within the frontiers of the empire, and served in the empire’s military. In some respects these barbarians preserved, rather than destroyed, the empire by filling gaps in the population and manning the armies.
Depending on their proximity to Roman institutions, the different Germanic tribes entered the empire with varying degrees of Romanization. Pressures from the movement of peoples out of central Asia, broken treaties between the Romans and the Germans, and search for better living conditions turned the tide of migration into an armed flood.
Certain key dates in the first half of the fifth century mark the transition:
410 — Alaric, leader of the West Goths, sacked the city of Rome, a traumatic event for the western Roman world. His successor Ataulf married the sister of the emperor Honorius.
430 — Augustine, who had written the City of God to explain the fall of Rome in 410, died the year before the Council of Ephesus in the East and the fall of his city of Hippo in North Africa to the Vandals.
451 — Attila and the Huns from central Asia, who were sweeping through western Europe, were defeated by an alliance of Romans and Germans led by Aëtius and were persuaded by Pope Leo to turn back from Rome. The same year the Council of Chalcedon was meeting in the East.
455 — Aëtius and the emperor Valentinian III were assassinated, and the Vandals under Gaiseric sacked Rome.
III. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AMONG THE GOTHS#
When the barbarian Germans swept through the western Roman world in the fifth century, they came (for the most part) not as pagans but as Arian Christians. The first of the Germanic peoples to be reached with the Christian gospel were the Goths. One of their bishops, Theophilus, was at Nicaea.
The principal missionary among the Goths was Ulfilas (c. 311–c. 383), consecrated bishop in 341 by Eusebius of Nicomedia. He was of mixed ancestry and spoke Greek, Latin, and Gothic. He signed the Homoean creed of the Council of Ariminum (Rimini, 359) while at Constantinople in 360. As far as Ulfilas knew, he was carrying the proper form of Christianity to the Goths.
The task of conversion was facilitated by two historical realities:
the Germanic peoples’ old religion was in decline at the time of contact with Christianity
the Germanic peoples all spoke a common tongue
Ulfilas was active in communicating the gospel and translating the Scriptures until his death. He left the books of Samuel and Kings out of his translation. His activity is a reminder that translation has often accompanied mission work, even to the extent, as in this case, of creating a written alphabet for the language.
To the Goths, accustomed to three chief gods (Tu, Thor, and Woton), who had no control over the lesser gods (called demons by the missionaries), Ulfilas insisted on monotheism. He used the figure of Jesus as a prince, the hero (held), under the Father as King. In this simple form he taught the people and avoided Logos speculation. From the Goths Arian Christianity spread to other Germanic peoples (with the exception of the Franks).
Arian Christianity among the Goths had the following characteristics:
They spoke of the Father and the Son as of “one blood,” instead of the Greek philosophical language of one substance, and so avoided theological debate.
The liturgy and the Scriptures were in the vernacular.
No distinctive church community was created, but social ties remained those of the family and the clan.
The bishops and priests from the beginning were rather like military chaplains, for there were no fixed geographical dioceses, and there were no metropolitan bishops (there were no cities!). Synods were assembled by the ruler, since there was no hierarchy between the bishops and the ruler.
The prevailing organizational pattern was the “proprietary church” (eigenkirche), or “church of the ruler” or of any lay patron, since a prominent member of the “folk” who built a chapel and secured the services of a priest considered the church as in a sense belonging to himself. This authority of the proprietary lord over priests weakened episcopal jurisdiction. Later the most prominent free bishop of the church in the West was the Roman bishop, so he had to fight for the freedom of the church from the control of secular authorities. The proprietary church arrangement survived after the Arian theology was gone.
As in the empire, the ritual side of Christianity counted more than the moral.
The saints came to be viewed more as helpers than as models.
IV. MOVEMENTS OF SPECIFIC PEOPLES#
We will make a half circle around the western Mediterranean, following the course of events affecting the different Germanic tribes.
A. The Vandals and North Africa#
When Rome removed its armies from the Rhine in 406 in order to protect Italy, the Germanic tribes poured into Gaul, Spain, and North Africa. Gaiseric (king 428–77) led the Vandals across western Europe into North Africa (429). Carthage was taken in 439 and made the capital of an Arian Vandal kingdom. Gaiseric was an intolerant Arian. In 455 he felt so powerful that he sent his ships across the Mediterranean to sack Rome.
The Donatists in North Africa initially rejoiced in the coming of the Vandals. A Donatist-Catholic synod met in 484 to try to heal their theological differences. There was an abatement of persecution of Catholics under king Gunthamund (484–96), but his brother Thrasamund (496– 523) resumed persecution. This religious persecution of Catholics did more to give the Vandals their bad name than any acts of “vandalism,” for the Vandals were no more “barbaric” than the other Germans.
Justinian’s general, Belisarius, reoccupied North Africa for the Byzantine empire in 534.
B. The Visigoths (West Goths) and Spain#
The first contact of the Romans with the Goths came under Decius. During the time of Constantine the Goths became allies (foederatae), and they often entered the army in high offices. The West Goths were hard-pressed by the Huns, and in 376 they sought refuge on the Roman side of the Danube. The emperor Valens granted this, and there began a mass conversion to Arianism.
Due to mistreatment, the Goths revolted in 378 and killed Valens in the battle of Adrianople, an event that marked the real beginning of the Germanic invasions and shocked the East in a way comparable to the effect of the sack of Rome in 410 on the West. The emperor Theodosius moved the Goths west.
The Gothic king Alaric died in the same year (410) as the sack of Rome, but by 419 his successor, Ataulf, had mastered southern Gaul and all of Spain. Under their king Theodoric (420–51) the Visigothic army fought with Rome against the Huns in 451. The pro-Roman Theodoric II (451–56) was succeeded by Euric (456–84), a cruel ruler. During the reign of Alaric II (484–507) the Visigoths were forced out of Gaul, and Toledo [Spain] became the center of the Visigothic kingdom.
By 565 Justinian had regained much of the West, including part of Spain. King Reccared (586–601) accepted Catholic Christianity in 587. This conversion was signaled by the third synod of Toledo in 589, where the Nicene creed was accepted.
In an effort to establish orthodoxy, the synod may have overdone it by adding the filioque clause (“and from the Son”) to the creed.
The current form of the “Nicene Creed” (approved in 381) said that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father,”
The Latin of the creed adopted in 589 said the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son,” an expansion based on Augustine’s theology of the Trinity and designed to emphasize the full deity of the Son.
The clause was later to alienate Eastern Christians, who argued that the Nicene creed was inviolable and not subject to change and that the addition introduced two sources of deity into the Godhead. In any case, the Arians and Catholics in Spain united to drive out the Byzantines.
Instrumental in the conversion of Reccared to Catholic Christianity Chapter was Leander (not himself a Goth but from the old Italian aristocracy), bishop of Seville and friend of Gregory the Great. Leander was succeeded by his brother Isidore, metropolitan of Seville (599–636), who is remembered as the most important religious figure of Visigothic Spain. His Etymologiae, or Origines, was an encyclopedia of the knowledge of the time. As a transmitter of learning he became one of the educators of the Middle Ages. In 633 the Fourth Council of Toledo systematized the liturgy of the Mozarabic Rite.
In 711 the Muslims brought an end to the Visigothic kingdom.
C. The Suevians#
The Suevians occupied the northwestern Iberian peninsula. They became Catholic early under Rechiarius (448–57) but then passed back to Arianism. Their final conversion came about 550–55 under King Charriaric, thanks largely to the influence of Martin, a monk and missionary and then bishop of Braga (after 561–80). Their kingdom was annexed by the Visigoths in 585.
D. The Burgundians#
The Burgundians had their center on the middle and upper Rhone river. They were divided between Arians and Catholics, and they were speedily and thoroughly Romanized. The Burgundian kingdom was absorbed in 534 by the Franks.
E. The Franks#
The Franks were the least mobile of the Germanic peoples, settling in what is now northern France and expanding their political rule from there. They joined other German tribes and the Romans in defeating the Huns in 451. They also had been the most immune to Christianity, before coming directly from paganism to Catholic Christianity under their king Clovis (c. 466–511).
Clovis’s conversion to Catholic Christianity was significant for future European history. Since the Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and most of the Burgundians were Arian, it was possible that Arianism would take over the West as the empire broke down. Moreover, alone of the Germanic kingdoms, the Frankish kingdom (under the Merovingian dynasty) survived, perhaps in part because Clovis early embraced the same faith as the majority of his subjects.
Avitus, bishop of Vienne (c. 490–518), planned the marriage of the Burgundian princess Clotilda, a Catholic Christian, to Clovis (c. 492).
They had a son, who was baptized but died while still in his baptismal robes. Clovis said his gods would not allow such a thing to happen. Later they had another son who lived.
In war against the Alemanni, another Germanic tribe, Clovis asked for the aid of the Christian God. When the Alemanni were defeated and their king killed, Clovis submitted to baptism, bishop Remigius of Rheims performing the baptism on Christmas day (496 is the traditional date).
The principal source for Clovis’s conversion is the History of the Franks, written by Gregory, bishop of Tours (538–94). In this work and others Gregory gave to the Franks a sense of identity and shaped their self-understanding for the future.
As a propagandist for the orthodox, Gregory viewed Clovis as a new Constantine and developed the symbolic importance of his baptism:
Placed at the age of thirty (the age of Jesus’ baptism)
Accompanied by the baptism of 3,000 of his soldiers (cf. Pentecost in Acts 2)
Consequently, many details associated with the conversion remain undetermined and even the date uncertain (496 or 498).
The anointing of Clovis after his baptism became a custom among the Franks at the appointment of kings. The resulting aura of sacred Christian kingship gave a justification for the Frankish control of the church. Clovis’s character, however, remained little changed by his acceptance of Christianity.
After defeating the Visigoths in 507, Clovis seized their treasury and gave it to the shrine of St. Martin of Tours. At Tours in 508 Clovis received a cloak from the eastern emperor, completing an alliance in faith with Rome and in politics with Constantinople. Following the conquest of Aquitania from the Visigoths in 507, the Frankish kingdom added Burgundy in 534 and Provence from the Ostrogoths in 536.
In 511 the bishops of the Frankish territory met in Orleans for the first synod of the Merovingian kingdom. Bishops had assembled on the level of civil provinces, regions, or the empire as a whole before, but it was new for them to meet on the level of a kingdom, with the king in some respects taking the place of the emperor.
F. The Ostrogoths (East Goths) and Italy#
In 476 the Germanic general Odoacer (Odovacar) deposed the young Romulus Augustulus, the last ruler of the West before Charlemagne to wear the name of emperor, and Odoacer became the effective ruler of Italy. He was slain in 493 by Theodoric, ruler of the East Goths (Ostrogoths) since 471 and in the imperial service since 488.
Next to Clovis, Theodoric was the most important ruler of the new barbarian kingdoms.
Theodoric made Ravenna his capital.
He was an Arian and a barbarian, but he supported Byzantine culture.
Personally tolerant, he found his Catholic subjects not so tolerant.
His rule (493– 526) brought the last flowering of late Roman culture in the West.
The Ostrogothic kingdom continued until 553, when Justinian retook much of Italy for the Byzantine empire. The cultural revival from 493 to 553 may be called the “Indian summer of Christian antiquity.” During this period flourished a number of significant persons who laid the basis for early medieval society.
Boethius#
Boethius (c. 480–524/26), a philosopher and statesman, was a member of a leading Roman family and became a minister in the government of Theodoric. Although loyal, Boethius came under suspicion and Theodoric had him imprisoned and later executed for treason. While in prison, Boethius wrote his most famous work, The Consolation of Philosophy.
Boethius represents a transition from the Fathers to the Scholastics, for his approach anticipated the work of the later Schoolmen. He communicated to the Middle Ages, through his translations, what was known of Aristotle—his ethics and logic, including Porphyry’s commentary on the latter. The Schoolmen esteemed Boethius the greatest authority in philosophy after Aristotle.
Dionysius Exiguus#
Dionysius Exiguus (“the Less,” an expression of his humility) was a Scythian who came to Rome toward the end of the fifth century and died about 527. He collected and translated the canons of the Eastern church into Latin. He also collected the canons of the Western church and papal decretals. As his work grew, it soon attained great authority.
Dionysius has a wider cultural significance because he introduced a system of dating based on the Christian era, beginning with the incarnation (AD for anno domini, “in the year of the Lord”) instead of the secular method according to the consuls of Rome and the empire of Diocletian. Unfortunately he miscalculated the date of Jesus’ birth, so that according to contemporary reckoning Jesus was born at least 4 BC (“before Christ”).
The relative security of the period made possible an interest in dates and archives. The Liber Pontificalis (“Book of Popes”), composed under Pope Boniface II (530–32), contains the “Liberian Catalogue” (from the fourth century; Liberius is the last pope mentioned), and then a continuation about the later popes up to Felix IV (526–30). The work was then kept up by contemporary accounts until the ninth century.
Cassiodorus#
Cassiodorus (c. 485–c. 580) was another important Catholic in the administration of Theodoric, holding various offices from the age of twenty. He became the soul of Theodoric’s government, contributing to the greatness of the reign and being honored by his successors. He preserved the laws of the Ostrogoths in his Variae, and the collection of his letters while in public office became the model for chancelleries in the Middle Ages.
When Cassiodorus retired from public life in 540, being granted a “second life,” he said, he established the monastery of Vivarium on his estate on the southern coast of Italy. His monks translated some works and copied manuscripts of others by dictation, an activity important in the transmission of Jerome’s Vulgate.
Cassiodorus’s Institutes of Divine and Secular Readings presented a union of sacred and secular knowledge, providing an introduction to theology and Scripture and a summary of the liberal arts. Although his monastery did not survive, its ideal of learned celibacy was picked up in part by the Benedictines later.
Another important figure of the period, Benedict of Nursia, born about the same time in 480 as Boethius and Cassiodorus, will be considered in relation to Gregory the Great.
G. The Lombards and Italy#
The Lombards in 568 broke through the northern bounds of Justinian’s empire and entered Italy. Gregory the Great in 593 turned them back and secured peace with a division of Italy between Lombard and imperial holdings.
Not united, the Lombards ruled from three centers: The kingdom at Pavia in the north threatened Ravenna; the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento in central Italy were a danger to Rome and Naples respectively.
The Lombards were Arian. Their acceptance of Catholic Christianity did not come until the seventh century.
V. EFFECTS OF THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS#
A. The Christian Literary Response to the Invasions#
Although the plunder of Rome in 410 seemed to some to mark the end of the ages, Orosius, at the suggestion of Augustine, wrote Seven Books against the Pagans (417–18) in order to show that the pre-Christian world suffered no less than the present and to interpret the invasions as a chastisement from God. The work became a manual of universal history in the Middle Ages.
Orosius gave an important place to the Roman Empire in the divine scheme, so that his theological history placed on the Western mind the idea of the divine role of the Roman people. Orosius promoted the view that both the Hebrew and Roman peoples had a part to play in the salvation of the world.
Jerome had already interpreted the fourth kingdom of Daniel as Rome and concluded that it was to continue as long as the church did, a significant idea in the future.
Salvian’s On the Divine Government in 440 added the historical significance of the Germanic people. He exaggerated the good qualities of the Germans in contrast to the corruptions of the Romans, so that the invasions served as chastisements for Rome’s sins.
Augustine held that political success and failure are ultimately indifferent: his focus was on the world to come. Orosius, on the other hand, retained the belief of Eusebius of Caesarea that Christianity was the guarantor of the empire’s prosperity. Salvian claimed that the empire was punished for its sins. These appeared to be the three possible attitudes open to Christian apologists in the aftermath of the invasions.
Later Christian historians in the West began to write the history of the Germanic peoples, expanding Salvian’s incorporation of them into God’s providential rule.
Cassiodorus (c. 485–c. 580) wrote a History of the Goths (now lost)
Gregory of Tours wrote a History of the Franks (written 576–91)
Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) wrote a History of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi
The Venerable Bede wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (completed 731).
B. Effects on Society#
The Germanic Christian kings for the most part regarded themselves as Roman, acknowledged the emperor in the East, and respected Roman traditions and customs.
Nevertheless, the old Roman and the new Germanic peoples were divided by:
Language (Latin or Gothic)
Customs of food and dress (Latins wore togas and Germans trousers)
Legal systems (often different laws were applied to the different peoples within the same kingdom)
It took centuries for the two peoples to blend and become the nations of modern Europe.
Greco-Roman civilization had been based on cities, but the Germanic invasions brought a decline in cities.
A purely rural economy developed in the West, accelerating the development of feudalism.
Bureaucracy, civil service, and mercenaries were possible in the East because of a money economy.
Whereas in the East cities remained the backbone of the social organization, in the West country estates held this position. The kings had to subsist essentially on their own landed possessions, so there was a decentralization of government services.
C. Effects on the Churches#
With the decline in central government in the West, the church took over many public services, for example education, that retained their traditional basis in the East.
In the West, churches and monasteries were bound to the agricultural economy and profited by the prominence of local powers.
The church had advantages over the monarchies. The idea of a universal authority associated with the church created a potential superiority over the more limited authority of regional kings. No secular authority in the West was able to control the church as an organ of state to the same extent as the eastern emperors.
On the frontiers of the empire, Christianity was less well established. This fact, plus the destruction caused by the invasions, resulted in an almost total obliteration of the church’s presence or, if not, at least a temporary withdrawal.
In regions farther back from the frontiers, the settling of new populations and other effects of the invasions disrupted the church’s life for varying periods of time, but did not completely interrupt it.
As the empire crumpled, the church almost alone of the old institutions survived, and to it Christians looked for support and continuity. The bishops often mediated with the invaders and the new kings.
Nearer the Mediterranean core of the western empire, in southern Gaul and Italy, the upheaval was less extensive, and Roman civilization was able to lead a tenuous life for several generations. Churchmen there could continue to indulge in the luxury of theological controversy.
VI. THE LATER STAGES OF THE AUGUSTINIAN-PELAGIAN CONTROVERSY#
The first phase of the Pelagian controversy was Augustine versus Pelagius, and the second phase was the Semi-pelagian reaction against Augustinianism in southern Gaul. A third phase opened with the defense of Augustine by his supporters in Gaul.
From the literary viewpoint the principal champion of Augustine’s ideas was Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390–after 455). He replied to Cassian in Contra Collatorem (432) and sought the aid of Pope Celestine against the “Semipelagians.” Initially Prosper appears more faithful to strict Augustinianism and tried to hang the already condemned heresy of Pelagius on Cassian.
For Prosper the key issue was the utterly gratuitous character of grace, and he saw the cause of disagreement as differing estimates of the effect of the fall on the human capacity for good. Prosper’s response to the objections others lodged against Augustine’s teaching defended predestination and perseverance, but now introduced foreknowledge of wrongdoing as the reason for God’s withholding the grace of perseverance from some.
Prosper’s On the Calling of the Gentiles wrestled with God’s will to save all, a troublesome concept for Augustinians.
He explained that God’s general grace invited all
He interpreted 1 Timothy 2:4 as God’s will that prayer be made for the salvation of all
Although he was conciliatory about the place of the human will in salvation, Prosper’s case was ultimately unsatisfactory because his emphasis on the necessity of special grace for salvation was inconsistent with the universal saving will of God.
A fourth phase in the controversy saw renewed opposition to strict Augustinianism as expressed by Lucidus, whose views on predestination were condemned in a synod at Arles in 473.
Faustus, abbot of Lerins in 433 and then bishop of Rhegium (Riez) in 458, wrote On Grace to oppose predestination.
He sought to locate a middle position between Pelagius and Augustine, affirming both the freedom of the will and the necessity of grace.
Avitus, bishop of Vienne (c. 490–c. 518) and Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe in North Africa (c. 507–c. 533) affirmed a thoroughgoing Augustinianism against Faustus.
The final phase of the conflict over human nature and salvation saw the triumph of what may be called “Semiaugustinianism,” as expressed by Caesarius, bishop of Arles (502–42).
Caesarius was one of the most important bishops of his time. He was known for his benevolence and pastoral care, his homilies were used as models of preaching, and he drew up the first rule specifically written to regulate the communal life of nuns.
Although Caesarius had been trained at the monastery at Lerins, he adopted a moderate Augustinianism that incorporated Augustine’s emphasis on the priority of grace, accepted the monastic emphasis on good works and their reward at the judgment, and passed over the more controversial aspects of Augustine’s teaching on predestination and perseverance.
Caesarius’s views were approved by a small synod of bishops gathered at Orange in 529 and given wider currency by Pope Boniface II’s endorsement in 531. The main points were the following:
Humanity is under original sin and has lost all power to turn to God.
Prevenient grace (grace preceding any good will or work) is affirmed against the Semipelagians.
Baptism is the decisive conferral of grace, forgiving original sin and renewing the capacity to choose the good.
All who receive grace in baptism can be saved if they work faithfully.
Thus the basis was laid for the medieval compromise that insisted on the theological priority of grace and the pastoral emphasis on achieving merit by good works.
Although Caesarius and the Council of Orange were largely Augustinian, their views allowed for predestination to grace, but not for predestination to glory (the absolute gift of perseverance).
Although there continued to be adherents of a strict Augustinianism, the general view in the Latin West was that of Pope Gregory the Great, who accepted prevenient grace without its irresistible or particularistic aspects.
VII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAPACY: FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES#
A. Fourth and Fifth Centuries before Leo the Great#
Some of the same factors that had lifted the church in Rome to prominence by 200 were still operative, but some underwent significant changes.
Theologically, Rome claimed the apostolic authority of Peter and Paul, but in the fourth and fifth centuries Paul dropped out of the formulations, as the historical memories faded and the textual argument based on the three “Petrine passages” (Matthew 16:16–19; Luke 22:31– 32; John 21:15–19) assumed centrality.
The personal factor of the steadfastness of the bishop of Rome during the Arian controversy (except for the dubious case of Liberius) maintained Rome’s reputation for orthodoxy. The bishop of Rome never attended an ecumenical council and so kept clear of the machinations and pressures accompanying these gatherings.
Organizationally, Rome kept to the usage of a local provincial synod held twice a year. This stable, conservative body of bishops — always in league with Rome — gave a consistent organ through which the pope acted, in contrast to the synod at Constantinople, which depended on visiting bishops and so was subject to fluctuation of policy.
Geographically, the Roman bishop, by reason of his location, had a voice that could be heard everywhere. Ecclesiastically, Rome was the only patriarchate in the West.
Politically, Rome in this period was not as important as it had been earlier. Milan was the capital for the region, and later Ravenna was to become the capital. Nevertheless, Rome still had importance, at least symbolically, and with the absence of the royal court its bishop was the most important figure in the city. The associations of imperial Rome began to surround the church’s government.
The papacy development#
The word pope is from the child’s word for “father” in Greek (pappas or papas).
It was used in Latin for the bishop of Carthage by the beginning of the third century.
“Pope” was the common word for the bishop of Alexandria by the mid-third century and is still the title of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria.
The first known use of the word at Rome for its bishop is in an inscription of 303 for Marcellinus, but the word became common at Rome in the fourth century.
It was used almost exclusively in the West for the Roman bishop from the sixth century.
Julius (bishop 337–52) stood by Athanasius in the Nicene cause but, more significant for the development of the papacy during his tenure was the third canon of Sardica, 343. That canon provided that a deposed bishop in the West could have an extra hearing before the bishop of Rome, an important step in the recognition of his appellate authority.
Liberius used the term papa of himself. At Sirmium he signed a creed that sacrificed the Nicene terminology, doing so in order to stay in office against a rival Arian bishop.
By far the most important bishop of Rome for advancing the claims of his see in the fourth century was Damasus (366–84), who came to the office after a contested election in which there was bloodshed between his supporters and those of his rival Ursinus. Damasus made frequent reference to Rome as “the apostolic see” and spoke of the “primacy of the Roman see” on the basis of Matthew 16:18.
Damasus honored his predecessors’ burial sites in the catacombs with ornate inscriptions, undertook reform of the liturgy (in Latin rather than Greek), and commissioned Jerome to make a revision of the Latin Bible.
Siricius (384–99) considered his letters as having the place of authoritative edicts and styled them “apostolic.”
Innocent I (402–17) pushed back Sardica’s canon 3 to Nicaea. In the Pelagian controversy he claimed the highest teaching authority for the apostolic see. He extended his authority into Illyricum and began the use of the term “vicar” for the bishop of Thessalonica.
Boniface I (418–22) used the term “papal vicar” and forbade any appeals beyond Rome.
B. Leo the Great and Gelasius#
Leo I (440–61), who shares the designation “Great” with two other popes — Gregory I and Nicholas — may be justly called “the first pope” in something like the sense that title carries for people today. He combined the themes of authority over councils, authority over emperors, and successor of Peter in constructing his theory of the papacy.
Leo’s Sermon 3, on the first anniversary of his election as bishop of Rome, elaborated the Petrine theory in terms of the Roman law of inheritance, according to which an heir assumed fully the position of the testator.
Peter had the keys of the kingdom and authority over other apostles
Peter became the first bishop of Rome, and his authority was transmitted to later bishops of Rome.
Therefore, the perpetual authority of Peter is found in the Roman bishop, “the vicar of Peter” and “primate of all bishops.”
Leo took the passages of John 21 and Matthew 16 and disposed of the primitive theory of episcopacy, making the authority of bishops dependent on him. The bishop of Rome now stood between Jesus Christ and other bishops.
Canceling out the position of Cyprian that all bishops share Peter’s authority by faith, which did not pass exclusively to Rome, Leo held that in John 21 Jesus Christ extended to all bishops their authority through Peter and his successors.
Chalcedon gave an assent to Rome’s teaching authority previously unknown and later seldom acknowledged in the East, but Rome’s competence in discipline and jurisdiction was endangered. The primacy of Rome was well established in the West, but the story was different in the East, as shown by canon 28’s ranking of Constantinople next to Rome. Rome never accepted that canon.
In implementation of his theory of the papacy, Leo tried to secure a practical primacy. One challenge came from the metropolitan of Arles, who moved toward development of a patriarchate of his own. In 445 Valentinian III supported Rome, a decree that was later an embarrassment to Rome, for it represented the state deciding the constitution of the church.
In his political theory, Leo drew a comparison between the two natures of Jesus Christ and the two parts of the empire, the priesthood (sacerdotium) and the kingship (regnum). He compared Peter and Paul as founders of the Roman church to Romulus and Remus as the founders of the city of Rome, and presented the pax Christianum (the Christian peace) as the counterpart of the pax Romanum.
Leo’s policy toward the barbarians was both to civilize and sanctify them.
They called him the consul dei (the consul of God).
Leo negotiated with the Huns under Attila to get them to turn back from Rome.
He claimed the title of the pagan chief priest of Rome, “pontifex maximus,” for himself
He was the first Roman bishop to be buried in St. Peter’s.
In sum, the powers and prerogatives of the future papacy are outlined in Leo’s methods, policy, and ideals:
Acting as head of the city government
Checking the advance of the barbarians
Enforcing his authority on distant bishops
Preaching on doctrine
Intervening successfully at Chalcedon
Augustine provided the intellectual substance for the medieval Western church, and Leo outlined its institutional form.
Gelasius (492–96) developed the religio-political theory of Leo. Gelasius realized that the acclaim of emperor Marcian at Chalcedon as teacher of the church and priest-king was fraught with danger. The Old Testament functionaries of prophet, priest, and king, Gelasius proclaimed, were filled by Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. Only one who was divine could fill all three. Among human beings, these functions must be kept separate.
Gelasius’s viewpoint of the superiority of priests over kings was to be echoed throughout the Middle Ages. Gelasius repeated the claim that it was the office of the Roman church to judge other churches, but to be judged by no human tribunal.
The West now regarded the kingdom of Jesus Christ as embodied in the church, whereas the East persisted in the Eusebian ideal of a Christianized empire, embodied in the rule of Justinian.