Notes on Church History

A Church HistoryTimeline

Compiled by R. Grant
Jones

If there is no timeline to the right,
click here.

Warning:  This is a work in progress,

and doubtless contains errors.

The Pre-Christian Background

First Century
Jesus,
Paul,
Nero,
Clement,

Persecutions under Nero and Domitian,
Synod of Jamnia

Second Century
Persecution under Trajan, Hadrian,and
Marcus Aurelius;
Ignatius of Antioch,
Symeon,
Marcion,

Quadratus,
Aristides,
Bar-Cocheba,
Justin Martyr,

Aristo of Pella,
Polycarp,
Montanus,
Claudius
Apollinaris,
Melito of Sardis,
Tertullian,
Irenaeus,

Victor of Rome,
Polycrates,
Clement of Alexandria

Third Century
Persecution under Septimius Severus,
Decius, and
Valerian;
Origen,
Callistus,

Hippolytus,
Dionysius,
Cyprian,
Stephen of
Rome,
Paul of Samosata,
Diocletian,
the Apostolic
Constitutions

Fourth Century (Part I)
Persecution under
Diocletian;
The council of Elvira,
Alban,
Lucian of
Antioch,
Constantine,
the Edict of Milan,

Alexander of Alexandria,
Arius,
Eusebius of
Nicomedia,
First Ecumenical Council (Nicea),
Eusebius
of Caesarea,
Athanasius,
Marcellus of Ancyra,

Julius of Rome,
Council of Antioch,
Council of
Sardica,
Cyril of Jerusalem

Fourth Century (Part II)
Councils of Sirmium,

Hilary of Poitiers,
Council of Arles,
Council of
Milan,
Liberius of Rome,
The “Blasphemy” of
Hosius,
Anomoeans,
Pneumatomachi,

Aetius,
Basil of Ancyra,
Rival Councils at Rimini
and Seleucia,
Jerome,
Julian the Apostate,

Meletius and Paulinus,
Damasus,
Basil the Great,

Gregory Nazianzus,
Gregory of Nyssa,

Epiphanius,
the Tall Brothers,
Second Ecumenical
Council (Constantinople),
Siricius,
Symeon the
Stylite,
Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Council of
Carthage,
Augustine of Hippo,
John Chrysostom

Fifth Century
Augustine of Hippo,
John
Chrysostom,
the Synod of the Oak,
Alaric Sacks
Rome,
John Cassian,
Pelagius,
Cyril of
Alexandria,
Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Jerome,

Theodoret,
Celestine,
Nestorius,
The
Twelve Anathemas,
Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus),

Vincent of Lerins,
Leo the Great,
Dioscorus,

Eutyches,
the Robber council,
Fourth Ecumenical Council
(Chalcedon),
Attila the Hun,
the end of the Roman
Empire in the West,
Peter the Fuller,
Acacius,

the Henoticon,
Gelasius

Sixth Century
Severus,
Julian of Helicarnassus,

John the Grammarian,
Burgundians renounce Arianism,

Justin,
schism over the Henoticon ends,
Hormisdas,

slaughter of Christians in Yemen,
Boethius,
Dionysios Exiguus,

Justinian,
Benedict,
Council of Orange,
St. Sabbas,

Hagia Sophia,
Pseudo-Dionysius,
Leontius of Jerusalem,

Evagrius,
Agapetus visits Constantinople,
Cassiodorus,

Dionysius Exiguus,
the Condemnation of Origen,
plague,

John Scholasticus,
Vigilius,
defeat of the Gothic
kingdom in Italy,
Fifth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople),
the
Suevis renounce Arianism,
Columba of Iona,
Lombards invade Italy,

Avar invasion,
Persian invasion,
Jacob
Baradaeus,
Maximus Confessor (birth),
Columbanus,

Visigoths renounce Arianism,
Council of Toledo (and the
filioque),
John of Biclar,
Gregory the Great,

Augustine of Canterbury

Seventh Century
Augustine of Canterbury,
the
Persians conquer Jerusalem and take the true cross,
Heraclius,

Sergios,
Honorius,
death of Mohammed,
Isidore of
Seville,
Sophronius,
last Arian king of the Lombards,
Aidan of
Lindisfarne,
the Ekthesis,
John Climacus,
destruction
of the library in Alexandria,
council at Rome (649),
Maximus
Confessor,
the Arab conquest,
the Synod of Whitby,

Wilfrid,
Athanasian Creed,
Benedict Biscop,
the Sixth
Ecumenical Council (Constantinople),
Maronites,
Willibrord,

Quinisext Council

Eighth Century
Arab conquest of Spain,
Coelfrith,

Boniface,
Paulicians,
Leo the Isaurian,

Iconoclasm,
John of Damascus,
the Venerable Bede,

the battle of Tours,
the Khazars,
Constantine
Copronymus,
the Donation of Constantine,
council of Gentily,

synod of Cealchythe,
Empress Irene,
forced conversion of the
Saxons,
Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicea),
the synod of
Frankfort

Ninth Century
Charlemagne,
Alcuin,

Theodore Studites,
the council of Aachen,
Nicephorus,

the University of Constantinople,
the Synodicon of
Orthodoxy,
Gottschalk of Orbais,
persecution in Spain,

Photius,
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals,
Nicholas I,

Cyril and Methodius,
John Scotus Erigena,
Conversion of
Bulgaria,
Ratramnus,
Radbertus,
Hincmar of
Reims,
Mount Athos,
the Synod horrenda

Tenth Century
Cluny,
the Bulgarian
patriarchate,
King Wencelaus of Bohemia,
the Magyars
defeated,
several bad popes,
influence in Denmark,
in
Norway,
in Poland,
in Hungary,
the Wendish Revolt,

Adalbert of Prague,
the conversion of Russia,
Olaf Tryggvason,

influence in Sweden

Eleventh Century
Leningrad Codex,
the
filioque first inserted into the creed in Rome,
Alexius
the Studite,
Phoundagiagitai,
King Stephen of Hungary,

persecution under Caliph Hakim,
Michael Psellus,
the
investiture controversy,
Berengar of Tours,
the East-West
Schism,
Michael Cerularius,
Jaroslav the Wise,

another Wendish uprising,
the Norman conquest,

Christianity imposed in Sweden,
Manzikert,
Hildebrand,

Henry IV,
John Italos,
Constantine the African,
Anselm,

Christodoulos,
the First Crusade,
the Cistercians

Twelfth Century
Basil the Bogomil,
the Holy Fire
in Jerusalem,
the Templars,
St. Cyril Philiotes,
Concordat of
Worms,
Otto of Bamburg,
Gratian’s Decretum,
Constantine
Chrysomallos,
Peter Abelard,
Bernard of Clairvaux,
the Second
Crusade,
the Wendish Crusade,
Peter Lombard,
Synod of
Blachernae,
Synod on John 14.28,
Cathari council in Languedoc,

Thomas Becket,
Euphronsyne of Polotsk,
Joachim of Fiore,

massacre in Constantinople,
St. John of Novgorod,
Saladin,

the Third Crusade,
Richard the Lionhearted,
Teutonic Knights,

Theodore Balsamon,
the Livonian Crusade,
Michael Glykas

Thirteenth Century
the Fourth Crusade sacks
Constantinople,
Stephen Langton,
the Fourth Lateran
Council,
Francis of Assisi,
Dominic,
St. Sava,
Synodicon
of the Holy Spirit,
Papal Inquisition,
Alexander Nevsky,

Mongols,
Thomas Aquinas,
Bonaventure,
council
of Lyons,
council of 1285,
Saint Timofey,
Dante,
Duns
Scotus

Fourteenth Century
Unum Sanctum,
the
Babylonian Captivity of the papacy,
St. Sergius of Radonezh,

St. Gregory Palamas,
the Black Plague,
Serbian
patriarchate,
Council of St. Sophia,
Council of
Blachernae,
Schism of the papacy,
battle of Kulikova,

John Wyclif,
conversion of Lithuania

Fifteenth Century
the synod of Piza,
John
Huss,
the council of Basel,
council of Constance,

Joan of Arc,
the council of Florence,
the printing
press,
fall of Constantinople,
the Judaizer heresy,

Marsilio Ficino,
the first Tsars of Russia,
the Spanish
Inquisition,
Archbishop Gennadi,
Abbot Joseph,

Rodrigo Borgia,
the new world

Sixteenth Century
Non-possessors,
Nils
Sorsky,
John Reuchlin,
Erasmus,
Martin
Luther,
Complutensian Polyglot,
the Aldine
Septuagint,
the Diet of Worms,
Henry VIII,

Suleiman’s Seige of Vienna,
the first complete English Bible
printed,
Calvin,
the Jesuits,
the Roman
Inquisition,
the council of Trent, Mary Tudor,
the
Peace of Augsburg,
the Geneva Bible,
the Bishop's
Bible,
Ivan the Terrible,
the battle of Lepanto,

the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
Ostrozhsky or
Ostrong Bible,
Gregorian
Calendar,
Sixtine
Septuagint,
Russian
Patriarchate,
Brest-Litovsk,
the Edict of
Nantes,
Basil of Mangazeya

Seventeenth Century
Douay-Rheims Bible,
the King
James Bible,
the Thirty Years War,
Philaret of
Moscow,
Josaphat Kuntsevich,
Textus Receptus,

Codex Alexandrinus,
Huguenots,
Cyril
Lukaris,
the English Civil War,
Council of
Jerusalem,
Council of Jassy,
Peter of Moghila,

Nikon,
Peter the Great,
final Turkish seige of
Vienna,
revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
liberation
of Hungary,
Glorious Revolution

Eighteenth Century
Unigenitus,
Moscow
patriarchate abolished,
Melkites,
Gregorian
calendar,
Paissy Velichkovshy,
Jesuits
suppressed,
Kosmas the Aetolian,
the Philokalia

Nineteenth Century
Alexis Khomiakov,
Nikita
the Albanian,
Seraphim of Sarov,
Kollyvades,
John
of Kronstadt,
liberation of Greece from Turkish rule,

Marquis de Custine,
the encyclicals of the Eastern
Patriarchs,
the Crimean War,
Immaculate
Conception,
First Vatican Council,
Westcott and Hort,

The Way of a Pilgrim,
Theophan the Recluse,

Leo XIII

Twentieth Century
Gregorian calendar,

persecution of the Russian Church,
World War II,

Vatican II,
the “embrace of peace”

A partial list of references

Maps*

A Map to Accompany the First Four Centuries

The Patriarchates Circa 451

*To view a map at its full size when using Internet Explorer, place
your cursor over the map and click on the icon that appears at the lower
right.

Home

Links

St.
Gregory the Great Orthodox Church,
4100 River Road N.W.,

Washington, DC

The Fifth Century

If there is no index on the left, click here:
Index

401Augustine wrote On the Work of Monks against the notion
that monks needed to do no work, and could live on alms.

402 The capital in the West was moved from Milan to
Ravenna.

402 Epiphanios of Salamis traveled to
Constantinople to campaign against John Chrysostom, who was sheltering
four Origenist monks (three of them being the Tall Brothers; see 375,
399.  He became convinced of Chrysostom’s orthodoxy, set sail for
Salamis, but died en route.

403Synod of the Oak.  John Chrysostom made a
tactical error in alienating the empress Eudoxia by calling her a
Jezebel.  Theophilus took occasion of the issue over the Tall
Brothers to have a council meeting at the palace of the Oak near
Chalcedon depose John.  The emperor ratified the decision.  An
earth tremor the following day caused the emperor to recall him.
John, however, compared Eudoxia to Herodias, and Theophilus denounced John
as Satan.  Chrysostom was finally deposed.  However, a large
portion of the congregation in Constantinople would not enter the church
and accept John’s successor, Atticus.

405 In a letter to Exsuperius, bishop of Toulouse,
Innocent I, patriarch of Rome, listed the canon of scripture.  His
canon included the ‘Apocrypha.’

405 St. Moses the Ethiopian, at the age of
75, died a martyr for Christ during a barbarian invasion.  He had
been leader of a band of robbers in the Nile valley before being converted
to Christianity through an encounter with St. Isidore.

406-7 The Rhine froze and Vandals, Alans and
Suevi invaded Gaul.  (The emperor Julian had settled a group of
Franks in Taxandria, just south of the Rhine estuary.  The Salian
Franks emerged here after the 406/7 invasion.  See 480-81
below.  The term ‘Ryperian Franks’ refers to a group that settled
near Cologne.)

408 The Vandals invaded Spain.

408 Theodosius II became emperor in the East.
Ruled through 450.

408 An imperial decree issued in May of this year forbade
Jews from burning crosses during the festival of Purim.

409 The Roman legions departed Britain, leaving the
island undefended.

410 The Visigoths under Alaric sacked
Rome.  They had been settled by Valens (see year 377) in Moesia
and Illyria (the Ostrogoths were still beyond the Danube).  Alaric
had invaded Italy in 402.

410 St. Honoratus founded a monastery on the island
of Lerins.

At about this time St. John Cassian, a
Scythian, settled at a monastery in Marseilles, and organized monastic
communities of men and women after the Eastern model.  In Marseilles,
he wrote two works - the Conferences, and the Institutes -  that were
to have immense influence on Benedict (see year 529 below) and medieval
monasticism in the West.  Cassian was looked upon an authority
because of his intimate familiarity with monasticism in Egypt.  He
also wrote a work against Nestorius - On the Incarnation (about the
year 430) at the request of bishop Leo I of Rome.  Although Cassian
did not enter directly into controversy with Augustine (410-430) over the
doctrine of arbitrary predestination, he is regarded by some as the leader
of those in southern Gaul who considered the doctrine antithetical to
exhortations and punishment.  Against Augustine, they held that
predestination is in the light of God’s foreknowledge, for those who
perish do so against God’s will.  Man’s will is not dead, only
sick.  Cassian thus emphasized the need for human effort along with
God’s grace.

411Pelagius visited Rome on his way to the Holy Land.
Pelagius denied that man’s will has any intrinsic bias against doing
good.  He also denied any inward action on the part of God on the
soul.  He believed that a man can observe God’s commandments without
sinning, if he wills it.   Augustine entered into vehement
conflict with Pelagianism.  Augustine held that, as a result of
original sin, we are enslaved to ignorance, concupiscence, and
death.  We have lost the liberty Adam had to avoid evil and do
good.  So, to do good, God’s grace must be at work within us - purely
external aids will not do.  Thus, it is for God to determine who will
receive grace, and who will not.  Augustine’s doctrine had little
influence in the East.

411 The council of Carthage.  Catholics
and Donatists met with an imperial arbitrator.  The Catholics were
victorious.  In 412, the emperor Honorius proscribed Donatism by
edict, imposing fines and confiscating property.

411 According to a calendar from this year,
Christians in the eastern part of Syria observed a feast of All Saints on
the Friday of Easter week.

412Cyril became patriarch of Alexandria.  Served
through 444.  Cyril was Theophilus’ nephew.  His Christology
(sometimes called “Word-Flesh”) was opposed to that of Theodore of
Mopsuestia (Word-Man), fearing Theodore’s Christology (two natures after
the incarnation) implied that Christ was just an inspired
man.

415John of Jerusalem received Pelagius.  Jerome and an emissary
from Augustine of Hippo denounced Pelagius as heretical at a synod in
Jerusalem in July.  John devised a compromise formula and, at the
metropolitan Council of Diospolis in December, Pelagius was declared free
of doctrinal error.  Soon thereafter, John tacitly permitted the
Pelagians to sack the anti-Pelagian monastery at Bethlehem.

415Hypatia, a Neoplatonist philosopher, was brutally
murdered in Alexandria.  A mob dragged her from her chariot,
stripped her, and carried her to a church where she was murdered by Peter
the Reader.  Her flesh was stripped from her bones with oyster
shells.  Christians in Constantinople, at least, were
horrified.

415 The bones of St. Stephen were discovered in
Palestine in this year.

417 Pelagius excommunicated by Innocent I, bishop
of Rome.

417Zosimus (417-18), bishop of Rome, “approved an heretical
confession, denying original sin.”  [From the Patriarchical
Encyclical of 1895.]  However, when Zosimus later read Pelagius’s
commentary on Romans, he excommunicated Pelagius and condemned his
doctrine.

417-39 The liturgy in Jerusalem in this period is
preserved in the Old Armenian Lectionary.

418 Another council of Carthage condemned
Pelagianism, though it did not thoroughly endorse Augustine’s doctrine
(see above, year 411).  It held that (a) death was not a necessity
attached to human nature, but a penalty due to Adam’s sin; (b) original
sin inherited from Adam is present in every man and even newly born
children need baptism to be cleansed from this taint of sin; and (c) grace
is absolutely necessary, for “Without me you can do nothing.”

418 Upset by the bishop of Constantinople’s attempt
to interfere in Illyria, the bishop of Rome, Boniface I (418-22), wrote
that the Roman church stood to “the churches of the world as the head to
its members.”  He admitted that all bishops hold “one and the same
episcopal office” but advised that all should “recognize those to whom for
the sake of ecclesiastical discipline they ought to be subject.”

418 (416?) The emperor Honorius allowed the Gothic
Tervingi, who had begun to refer to themselves as Visigoths by this time,
under their king, Wallia, to settle as allies and dependents of the empire
in western Gaul (Aquitane).  From there they spread across the
Pyrenees into Spain, ostensibly to re-establish Roman authority
there.  The Vandals fled to Mauretania (see 429 below).

419 A synod met at Carthage to
establish a code of canon law for the church in North Africa.  St.
Augustine of Hippo was in attendance.  Pope Aurelius, bishop of
Carthage, presided.  As the proceedings began, a certain Faustinus,
legate of the Roman church, asked that the council acknowledge the right
of deposed bishops to appeal to Rome.  Faustinus claimed that this
right had been granted by the council of Nicaea.  Pope
Aurelius sent to Constantinople for copies of the acts of the council
of Nicaea, and found no such canon.  Subsequently, he wrote a
letter to Pope Celestine of Rome (“our most honorable brother”)
explaining that the African church was not obliged to allow disputed
cases to be referred to Rome.  In addition, he warned
Celestine against hearing such cases - “how shall we be able to rely
on a sentence passed beyond the sea, since it will not be possible to send
thither the necessary witnesses” - and against receiving those who had
been excommunicated in Africa into communion in Rome.

420 Death of Jerome, in Bethlehem.  Though he
was initially buried near the Grotto of the Nativity, his remains were
later transferred to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

420 In about this year, a Christian priest in
Persia destroyed a Zoroastrian fire temple.  Because of this and
other, perhaps less violent, acts of proselytism, Yezdegerd allowed the
Christians to be persecuted.  Some fled into the Roman Empire.
The Persians demanded their extradition; the Romans refused, and war
ensued.  In 422, after a Roman victory, a treaty was signed to ensure
peace for 100 years and put a stop to the persecution of
Christians.

421 Julian (380-455), bishop of Eclanum, banished
from Italy.  He had refused to agree to Zosimus’ condemnation of
Pelagianism, demanding that an ecumenical council consider the
question.  Julian was condemned by the council of Ephesus in
431.

423Theodoret (bishop 423-49, 51-58) (393?-458?, author of the
Religious History) became bishop of Cyrrhus, near Antioch.
Like Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret followed the
historo-critical school of biblical interpretation.  His Christology
was of the Word-man type, but he agreed that Christ is properly called
Theotokos, and he denied that his doctrine divided “the Son into
two Sons.”  According to some historians, there is likely a
connection between the interpretive methods of the schools of Antioch and
Alexandria and their respective Christologies.  Alexandrians tended
to read the gospels as allegories, and so interpret statements regarding
Jesus’ suffering, temptation, etc., in a spiritual sense.  The
Antiochians, reading literally, emphasized Jesus as human, as well as
divine.

423 Celestine (423-32), bishop of Rome, laid it
down as a principle that “No bishop is to be appointed against the will of
the people.”  Celestine also introduced the Introit psalm with
antiphon into the mass.

427 Augustine’s City of God
published.

427 The Persians went to war against the
Ephthalites or White Huns, a Turanian people who had conquered the land
between the Caspian Sea and the Indus River.  The Persians were
distracted by numerous wars against the Ephthalites until 557, thus
reducing their threat to the Roman Empire.

428Nestorius (Nestorius), a monk of Antioch, became patriarch
of Constantinople.  Nestorius was a follower of Theodore of
Mopsuestia, and raised the ire of Cyril of Alexandria by criticizing the
use of Theotokos.  Nestorius was concerned to maintain that the
incarnation cannot have involved the divine Word in any change or
suffering.  Therefore, he could not agree with Cyril’s hypostatic
union (see 553 for the triumph of this doctrine), under which the Word
would suffer.  Also, he thought that man’s redemption required that
the second Adam had to be a real man, not a creature dominated by or fused
with the divine.  Christ must have had a genuine human life of
growth, temptation and suffering.

According to some, Nestorius was
misunderstood to teach that Christ was two persons, one human and one
divine.  In actuality, they say, he taught a prosopic
union.  In Greek, prosopon refers to the self-manifestation of
an individual by means of other things - a painter includes his brush
within his own prosopon.  Nestorius taught that the Logos used
manhood for his self-manifestation.  Manhood was included in his
prosopon.

Early in his episcopate, Nestorius alienated many
potential supporters in Constantinople:  monks and many of the city’s
aristocrats.  Military leaders disliked Nestorius’ closing of the
last Arian chapel in Constantinople, since many German auxiliaries were
Arian.

429   The Vandals invaded Northern
Africa.

430 Under the influence of Cyril of Alexandria,
Celestine, patriarch of Rome, commissioned John Cassian to write a letter
to Nestorius, demanding recantation.  (Nestorius had unadvisedly
entertained some Pelagians recently, which didn’t help his image in the
West.)  Cyril also wrote to Nestorius, sending him his Twelve
Anathemas, which he had not coordinated with Rome, and which Nestorius
believed exposed Cyril as an Apollinarian.  Nestorius confidently
awaited the council of Ephesus.

Cyril’s twelve anathemas (stated positively):
(1) Mary is Theotokos; (2) the Word is united hypostatically to the
flesh; (3) no separation of hypostases after the union or any attempt to
link them merely by association based on dignity, honor or power - they
are in a natural union; (4) statements about Christ should not be
distinguished as though some referred to the Word and others to the man;
(5) the description “God-inspired man” is repudiated; (6) the divine Word
is not Christ’s God or Lord, because He is simultaneously God and man; (7)
Jesus was not moved by the Word or clothed in His glory, because there is
no distinction between Him and the Word; (8) “the man assumed” does not
deserve to be worshipped along with the Word (as Nestorius liked to put
it) because there is no separation; (9) the Spirit was not an alien power
enabling Jesus to work miracles, because the Spirit was his very own; (10)
our high priest is not a man distinct from the Word, but the very Word
himself; (11) the Lord’s flesh is the very flesh of the Word, possessing
thereby quickening power; and (12) the Word suffered, was crucified, and
died in His flesh.

Theodoret of Cyrrhus composed twelve
anti-anathemas and accused Cyril of Apollinarianism.

~430 Death of Neilos the Ascetic.  An
abbot of a monastery near Ankyra, Neilos is the first writer to make a
plain reference to the Jesus Prayer.  He was also author of the
Ascetic Discources later published in the Philokalia.

431Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus.  Called by
the emperor Theodosius II.  Held in the first church building known
to have been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.  Led by Cyril,
patriarch of Alexandria (412-444), an extreme Antiochene (Word-Man)
Christology, taught by Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, was
condemned.  Nestorius was understood to teach that the man Jesus is
an independent person beside the divine Logos and that therefore Mary may
not therefore properly be called theotokos (God bearer).  Nestorius
was excommunicated.  Pelagianism was condemned.  Cyprus was
granted ecclesiastical independence, and Jerusalem was made a patriarchate
(both at Antioch’s expense). The council also resolved that no additions
should be made to the Nicene creed:

“Let no one be permitted to bring forward, or write
or compose a different faith besides that defined by the Holy Fathers who
assembled with the Holy Spirit in the city of Nicaea.  And whoever
dares compose a different faith, or present, or offer [one] to those
wishing to turn to the knowledge of the truth ... let such, if they be
bishops or belong to the clergy, be alien bishops from the episcopate, and
clerics from the clergy -- and if they be laymen, let them be given over
to anathema.”

The action at Ephesus was not
harmonious.  John, patriarch of Antioch, held a simultaneous rival
synod.  Theodosius II decided to have both John and Cyril arrested,
and he ordered the bishops in Ephesus to depart.  They refused, and
when the news that Cyril had been arrested resulted in a riot in
Constantinople.  In the end, Theodosius II ruled in favor of
Cyril.  Cyril was not completely victorious, however, as his Twelve
Anathemas were not approved.

Nestorius went into exile and died in 451.
His doctrine lived on, however.  The church in Persia adopted it to
obtain the protection of their rulers -- after all, their religion was now
in conflict with the faith of the their Roman enemies.

At the urging of Valerian and Amphilochius, the
bishops of Iconium and Side, the council also condemned the
Messalians (which, it said, had been condemned at Constantinople in
the time of Sisinnius).  In addition, the council anathematized “the
filthy book of this heresy, which is called the ‘Asceticon.’ ”  (See
390.)

431 A certain Palladius was sent by Celestine,
bishop of Rome, to Christians in Ireland.

431 The Vandals under Genseric took Hippo, the year
after Blessed Augustine’s death.

431  The metropolitan of Hierapolis,
Alexander, restored the church in Risafe that had been built over St.
Sergios’s grave (see 303 above).  Shortly afterward, Risafe was made
a bishopric.  Justinian later changed the name of Risafe to
Sergiopolis.  Risafe became the destination of pilgrimages.
Sergios and Bacchus were considered protectors of the Roman army.
Many Eastern churches were dedicated to them.

432Christmas celebrated in Alexandria on 25 December for the first
time about this year.  Paul of Emessa preached in Cyril’s
presence.

432 Sixtus III (432-40) became patriarch of
Rome.  He wrote to the patriarch of Antioch regarding
Nestorius:  “Therefore, because, as the Apostle says, the faith is
one, - evidently the faith which has obtained hitherto, - let us believe
the things that are to be said, and say the things that are to be
held.  ...Let no license be allowed to novelty, because it is
not fit that any addition should be made to antiquity.  Let not the
clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled with any muddy
admixture.”

432St. Patrick began his mission to Ireland.

433 Cyril of Alexander and John of Antioch were
reconciled.  The instrument of reconciliation, the Symbol of
Union, employed largely Antiochene terminology, but Cyril assented to
it as containing, beneath this terminology, what he really fought for in
his Christology:

“We confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man composed of a
rational soul and body, begotten before the ages from His Father in
respect of His divinity, but likewise in these last days for us and our
salvation from the Virgin Mary in respect of His manhood, consubstantial
with the Father in respect of His divinity and at the same time
consubstantial with us in respect of His manhood.  For a union of two
natures has been accomplished.  Hence we confess one Christ, one Son,
one Lord.  In virtue of this conception of a union without confusion
we confess the holy Virgin as Theotokos because the divine Word became
flesh and was made man and from the very conception united to Himself the
temple taken from her.  As for the evangelical and apostolic
statements about the Lord, we recognize theologians employ some
indifferently in view of the unity of the person but distinguish others in
view of the duality of natures, applying the God-befitting ones to
Christ’s divinity and the humble ones to His humanity.”

Cyril’s more militant followers were not
pleased.

434 Proclus Ecumenical Patriarch (434-46).
St. John of Damascus states that, while Proclus was Patriarch, a calamity
threatened the city.  A boy was taken up from the people and taught
by angels to say the Trisagion hymn:  “Holy God, Holy Mighty,
Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.”  When he returned to earth and told
what he had learned, the people sang the hymn and the calamity was
averted.

Proclus’ Tome to the Armenians argued in
favor of theopaschite language in reference to Christ.  Though Christ
did not suffer in his divinity, he did do so according to the
flesh.

434St. Vincent of Lerins wrote his Commonitory as a
guide for distinguishing the Catholic faith from heresy.  Although he
was a Westerner, he made no mention of the papacy as the center for
faith.  He refers to the bishop of Rome as the “Head,” but doesn’t
employ this headship in his theory.  From the
Commonitory:

“But here some one perhaps will ask, Since
the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for
everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it
the authority of the Church’s interpretation?  For this reason, -
because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one
and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in
another; so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as
there are interpreters.  For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius
another, Donatus another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus,
Apollinaris, Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another,
lastly, Nestorius another.  Therefore, it is very necessary, on
account of so great intricacies of such various error, that the rule for
the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should be framed in
accordance with the standard of Ecclesiastical and Catholic
interpretation.

“Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all
possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been
believed everywhere, always, by all.  For that is truly and in the
strictest sense ‘Catholic,’ which, as the name itself and the reason of
the thing declare, comprehends all universally.  This rule we shall
observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent.  We shall
follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the
whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise
depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously
held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in
antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and
determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and
doctors.”

In another section, St. Vincent took up the
question of the development of doctrine:  “But the Church of Christ,
the careful and watchful guardian of the doctrines deposited in her
charge, never changes anything in them, never diminishes, never adds, does
not cut off what is necessary, does not add what is superfluous, does not
lose her own, does not appropriate what is another’s, but while dealing
faithfully and judiciously with ancient doctrine, keeps this one object
carefully in view, - if there be anything which antiquity has left
shapeless and rudimentary, to fashion and polish it, if anything already
reduced to shape and developed, to consolidate and strengthen it, if any
already ratified and defined to keep and guard it.  Finally, what
other object have Councils ever aimed at in their decrees, than to provide
that what was before believed in simplicity should in future be believed
intelligently, that what was before preached coldly should in future be
preached earnestly, that what was before practiced negligently should
thenceforward be practiced with double solicitude?  This, I say, is
what the Catholic Church, roused by the novelties of heretics, has
accomplished by the decrees of her Councils, - this, and nothing else, -
she has thenceforward consigned to posteerity in writing what she had
received from those of olden times only by tradition, comprising a great
amount of matter in a few words, and often, for the better understanding,
designating an old article of the faith by the characteristic of a new
name.”

435 A certain Romanus retired to Condat near the
Jura mountains in eastern Gaul, intending to live as a hermit.  Soon,
many others followed him and formed several monastic communities.
Among them was Eugendus, famous for exorcisms.

439 The Vandals captured Carthage.

440 Leo I (440-461) became patriarch of
Rome.  Exhorted his congregation to observe the Ember fasts, and
discouraged them from mixing Christianity with Sun worship.  Rebuked
his flock for paying reverence to the Sun god on the steps of  St.
Peter’s before entering the basilica.  He unearthed an infiltration
of Manichees into the congregation.  In a letter to the emperor, he
stated that “by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration the emperor needs no human
instruction and is incapable of doctrinal error.”

On the other hand, Leo was the first bishop of Rome
to claim the “plenitude of power” over the church, which was to play such
a large role in the development of the papal monarchy over the Medieval
church.

Leo’s sermons made the first mention of the
observance of Ember Days.  Their observance was widespread in the
West by the eighth century.  The Ember days are a time of prayer and
fasting, occurring on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday after the first
Sunday in Lent, after Whitsunday (Pentecost), after September 14, and
after December 13.  The name “Ember” comes from a German word,
quatember, which is a corruption of the Latin quatuor
tempora, or four seasons.

444Dioscorus (444-451) became patriarch of Alexandria.
Served through 451.  Dioscorus was one of the extremist party that
regretted Cyril’s compromise of 433.  He schemed with the court
eunuch Chrysaphius (influential with the emperor Theodosius II) to impose
Cyril’s Twelve Anathemas as the standard of orthodoxy.  Chrysaphius’
godfather Eutyches challenged the orthodoxy of those who say there are
two natures after the union.  When Flavian, patriarch of
Constantinople, condemned Eutyches as an Apollinarian, Dioscorus accused
Flavian of requiring a test for orthodoxy in addition to the Nicene Creed,
which the council of Ephesus had declared incapable of being
supplemented.  To resolve these issues, Theodosius II called a
council to meet in Ephesus in 449.

Eutyches taught that, after the incarnation,
Christ had only one nature and was not therefore of the same substance as
other men, since it had been deified and subsumed into the divine
nature.  This was the meaning of the Cyrillian formula “one nature
after the union” for Eutyches.

445 Valentinian III (425-54), emperor in the West,
stated that “whatsoever the authority of the apostolic see has sanctioned,
or shall sanction, shall be law for all.”  This apparently is quoted
from Valentinian’s Novel 17, which gave the bishop of Rome authority over
the provincial churches.

447 A synod of the Armenian church met at
Shahapivan.  It decreed punishments for those who fell into the
Messalian heresy (see 390 and 431).

448 Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum (Asia Minor),
proclaimed Eutyches’ Christology heretical.   He was (later that
year) deposed and excommunicated by a synod run by patriarch Flavian in
Constantinople.

448-84 Sometime between these dates, the
monastery of the Sleepless Monks was founded by Abbot Marcellus at
Eirenaion, in the middle Bosporus, opposite Sosthenion.  Their
monastery contained a famous library, built mainly for polemic
purposes.  The Sleepless Monks emerged as strong supporters of the
council of Chalcedon (451).

449 “Robber council” held at Ephesus.
Leo, patriarch of Rome, was invited to the council, but sent his Tome
instead, which was not read.  The council was run by Dioscorus of
Alexandria.  Flavian was deposed, and one of Dioscorus’ presbyters
was made bishop of Constantinople.  The “two natures after the union”
doctrine was condemned.  The Symbol of Union was set aside as going
beyond the decisions of Ephesus in 431.  The major “dyophysite”
leaders were deposed.  Theodosius II was determined the council’s
decisions would stand, in spite of opposition from Rome.  Theodoret
of Cyrrhus was declared a heretic and sent into exile.

450 About this year, the Angles, Saxons and
Jutes invaded England.

The Parthenon in Athens was converted to a church
in about this year.

450 Near this date, Codex Alexandrinus (A)
was written.  It contains all the canonical and Deuterocanonical
books of the Roman Catholic Old Testament, plus 3 & 4 Maccabees and
Psalm 151.  Affixed to the New Testament are I and II Clement.
The text type appears mixed, with some portions termed “neutral”
(Alexandrian) and others “Syrian” (Byzantine).  This version of the
Septuagint appears to have been corrected by the Hebrew.  Codex
Alexandrinus was the first of the ancient uncial codices to become known,
being sent from Constantinople to Britain in 1627.

Other documents from this time period
include:  Codex Bezae (D): Greek/Latin Gospels + Acts (D contains
many readings quoted in both Irenaeus and Clement of
Alexandria);
Codex Washingtonianus
(W): Greek Gospels; both of “Western” text-type: “fondness for
paraphrase.”
Codex Ephraemi Syri
rescriptus (C): Greek LXX + 27NT, many gaps
Codex Marchalianus (Q): Greek LXX + Luke + John, many
gaps
Codex Ambrosianus (F): Greek Genesis
to Joshua
Codex Freer: Greek Deuteronomy
and Joshua
Codex Colberto-Sarravianus:
Origen’s Greek Hexapla LXX of Gen-Judg
Codex Palatinus it(e): Latin Gospels, “African” (Carthage)
text-type
Codex Veronensis it(b): Latin
Gospels, “European/Vulgate” text-type
Syr(pal), Palestinian Syriac (Aramaic) Gospels, of
“Caesarean” text-type

450 The Eastern emperor Theodosius II fell from
his horse and died.  He was succeeded by Marcian (451-7), a
soldier, who married Pulcheria, Theodosius’ sister.  Both Marcian
and Pulcheria sympathized with the two natures doctrine.
Chrysaphius was killed, and Eutyches exiled.

450 The Armenians in Persian territory asked for
assistance from the Roman Empire against their Persian overlords.
Yezdegerd II, since his accession in 438, had attempted to convert the
Christian Armenians to Zoroastrianism.  The emperor Marcian,
distracted by the Huns, was unwilling to go to war for the
Armenians.  The war between the Armenians and the Persians continued
until Yezdegerd’s death in 453, when his successor, Firuz, granted them
complete toleration.

450 Near this year Auxentios the Persian left his
post as a senior administrator under the emperor Theodosius and founded an
influential monastery in Bythinia.

451Fourth Ecumenical Council, held at Chalcedon, in the church
of St. Euphemia the martyr.  The legates from Rome presided.
Dioscorus was deposed, though not on doctrinal grounds.  The
dyophysite leaders were restored, but Nestorius himself was condemned as a
heretic.  (Theodoret of Cyrrhus was restored, on the condition that
he repudiate his anti-anathemas against Cyril.)  Leo’s Tome was
received and pronounced to be orthodox.  The council also accepted
two of Cyril’s letters, but not his Twelve Anathemas.  There was
reluctance in the East to add a new creed, but one was drafted at Leo’s
representatives’ insistence.

The creed of the Council of Chalcedon:

“In agreement, therefore, with the holy fathers, we
all unanimously teach that we should confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is
one and the same Son, the same perfect in Godhead and the same perfect in
manhood, truly God and truly man, the same of a rational soul and body,
consubstantial with the Father in Godhead, and the same consubstantial
with us in manhood, like us in all things except sin; begotten from the
Father from before the ages as regards his Godhead, and in the last days,
the same, because of us and because of our salvation, begotten from the
Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, as regards his manhood; one and the
same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, made known in two natures without
confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the
difference of the natures being by no means removed because of the union,
but the property of each nature being preserved and coalescing into one
prosopon and one hypostasis - not parted, or divided into two prosopa, but
one and the same Son, only-begotten, divine Word, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as the prophets of old and Jesus Christ Himself have taught us about him
and the creed of our fathers has handed down.”

The prosopon is the thing’s external
aspect or form as an individual, while hypostasis is concrete subsistence
or existence as an individual.  The phrase “without confusion” was
used by  Nestorius, who was concerned to protect Christ’s divine
nature being viewed as suffering, growing or changing.

Perhaps because the creed is so Antiochene (it does
not use Cyril’s phrase “natural union” for instance, though one would
think “one hypostasis” does the same job), a large portion of the Eastern
church began to drift away as “Monophysites.”  The modern Alexandrian
(Coptic) church considers this a misnomer, and prefer something like
“miaphysites,” believing in one composite nature after the union.
They hold that Chalcedon was unneeded from a theological perspective and
was largely a power play by the emperor and the bishop of Rome.

The bishop of Rome’s representatives stated they
had no instructions regarding the privileges of Constantinople, and so
absented themselves from discussions on that point.  While they were
absent, the council reasserted Constantinople’s rights as a
patriarchate, with equal privileges to Rome, second in standing to
Rome, because Constantinople is the new Rome.  The
patriarch of Constantinople was to ordain the metropolitan bishops of the
dioceses of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, and bishops from those dioceses
among the barbarians.  The metropolitans, with his provincial
bishops, were to ordain new provincial bishops (Canon 28).

The council also approved the arrangement arrived
at by Antioch and Jerusalem, whereby Antioch retained jurisdiction over
“the two Phoenicias and Arabia” and Jerusalem over “the three
Palestines.”  (See map.)

451 Theodoric I, commanding a combined Visigothic,
Burgundian and Roman force, repulsed Attila at the battle of
Chalons.

452 Mamertus, bishop of Vienne in France,
instituted the Rogation Days after storms, pestilence, and
barbarians laid waste to his diocese and city.  The Rogation Days
were Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday (Ascension Day),
which is the 40th day after Easter.  Rogation means ‘asking,’ and it
is a time for asking God’s blessings on the crops, for a plentiful
harvest.

453 Attila died.

454 Hilary, bishop of Arles, asserted that the
church of Gaul was independent of Rome.  The Western emperor
Valentinian III told Aetius, the provincial governor, “if any bishop
summoned to trial before the bishop of Rome shall neglect to come,” he was
to force him.

455  The Vandals under Genseric sacked
Rome.  Leo I prevented wholesale destruction and massacre.

457 Marcian, Eastern Roman emperor, died.
Proterius, Dioscorus’ dyophysite successor at Alexandria, was torn to
pieces by a violent mob.  The see at Alexandria was occupied by
the Monophysite Timothy Aurelian.  Leo I wrote to the new
Eastern emperor (Leo I, 457-74) in favor of Chalcedon and his Tome, adding
that “by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration the emperor needs no human
instruction, and is incapable of doctrinal error.”

The Roman emperor Leo I appears to have been
the first emperor to accept his crown from the hands of the patriarch
of Constantinople.  Succeeding emperors also received the crown
in this way.  Thus the Roman coronation, previously a secular action,
took on a religious character.

458 Gennadius (458-71) patriarch of
Constantinople.  Gennadius had refuted Cyril’s anathemas.  After
Chalcedon, he interpreted the council’s terminology in an Antiochene
fashion, avoiding the terms Theotokos and using prosopon
instead of hypostasis for the union of natures.

~465 During the second half of the fifth century,
the Roman calendar was adopted in Constantinople.  The
beginning of the liturgical year was moved from 23 September to 1
September.

465 A major fire that swept through Constantinople
in this year had been predicted to the emperor by both Elisabeth of
Thrace, abbess of the convent of St. George, and Daniel the Stylite (d.
493).  Elisabeth was a noted healer and exorcist.

465Severus born (d. 538).  He became the Monophysite bishop of
Antioch.  Some have ascribed to him the works of the
pseudo-Dionysius.  See year 519 below.

466 Death of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus.  As
was common in the period between the council of Chalcedon and Justinian’s
reign among Chalcedonians, Theodoret failed to identify the subject of
Christ’s suffering with the Word because that would imply, as he thought,
that the divine nature suffered.  Antiochene interpretations of
Chalcedon such as Theodoret’s and that of Patriarch Gennadius of
Constantinople, reinforced the suspicion among supporters of Cyril’s
Christology - and the fact that Nestorius himself had approved of Leo’s
Tome - that Chalcedon had been a defeat.

467 Hilary (461-67), bishop of Rome, died.  He
had set up a body of seven ecclesiastical singers whose job it was to
oversee the music for all services at which Hilary presided.  This
group was known as the Schola Cantorum.

468 The Vandals conquered Sicily.

476 The end of the Western Roman
Empire.  Flavius Odoacer chose to be simply the Eastern emperor’s
lieutenant in the West.

476 Peter the Fuller, Monophysite bishop of
Antioch, is said to have first introduced the recitation of the creed
into the liturgy during his tenure (476-488). ).  He may have
intended to thus slight the confession of the Council of Chalcedon.
The first mention of the use of the creed as part of the mass in the West
is in a canon of the Council of Toledo in 589.

Peter is also known for the heretical addition to
the Trisagion prayer, “Who was crucified for us.”  According to St.
John of Damascus, the addition effectively added a fourth person to the
Trinity.

478 The tomb of St. Barnabas was discovered at
Salamis in Cyprus.  According to tradition, Barnabas had been stoned
to death.  The feast of St. Barnabas (June 11) commemorates the
discovery of his tomb.

479 War between the Ostrogoths and the Roman
empire.  The Goths were generally successful.  War ended in
483.

480-81 Clovis became king of the Salian
Franks.  He later converted to Orthodox Christianity under the
influence of his wife, Clotilde, a Burgundian princess, and Remigius,
bishop of Rheims.  See 496 below.

482Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, (471-89) wrote a
formula to end the Monophysite schism called the Henoticon.
It approved Cyril’s Twelve Anathemas, condemned both Nestorius and
Eutyches (see 444), did not mention the number of natures (whether one or
two), denounced “those who make either a division or a confusion or
introduce a phantasm,” and condemned “any heresy whether advanced at
Chalcedon or elsewhere.”  It was promulgated on the authority of the
emperor (Zeno the Isaurian, 474-91) alone without a council of bishops,
but was signed by the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch.  The
churches of the East were again in harmony.

484Schism over the Henoticon (484-520).
Simplicius, patriarch of Rome, excommunicated Acacius and
the Roman emperor Zeno at a synod in Rome.  Zeno was more concerned
with keeping Egypt and Syria loyal, and Simplicius could rely on the
support of the Gothic king Theodoric (an Arian) in Italy (see 488).
The schism over the Henoticon was ended in 520.

485 Death of Proclus (410-485), the last great
pagan Neo-Platonic philosopher, and head of Plato’s Academy in
Athens.

485 Philoxenus of Mabbug  (440-523),
supported by Peter the Fuller, patriarch of Antioch (see 476), became
bishop of Hierapolis (Mabbug).  Philoxenus opposed the council of
Chalcedon.  He wrote, “There is no nature without person, just as
there is no person without nature.”  To allow Him two natures was,
for Philoxenus, equivalent to asserting the existence of two persons in
Christ.

488 To protect his back as he put down a revolt in
Syria, Zeno sold out Odoacer and turned Italy over to the Ostrogoth
Theodoric.  (The Ostrogoths were descended from the
Greuthingi.)   The patriarch of Rome was relatively free of the
Roman emperor until 536.

492 Gelasius I (492-6) patriarch of
Rome.  He put an end to an “abuse” in the churches of Calabria where
communion was being given in only one kind.  He also claimed that
“the see of Peter has the right to loose what has been bound by the
decisions of any bishop whatever.”

Gelasius continued the battle against the
Henoticon.  In order to keep the emperor out of church
affairs, Gelasius enunciated a political theory in which the church had
auctoritas (legislative) authority, while the authority of the
secular rulers was potestas (executive power).  In Roman law
auctoritas was superior to potestas, so Gelasius implied
that the church was superior to the state.  In fact, he stated that
the imperial potestas was derived from the papal
auctoritas.  Gelasius’ theory was a driving force behind
church-state relations until the Aristotelian rediscovery in the twelfth
century.

The Decretum Gelansianum, as the name
implies, is often associated with Gelasius.  But some manuscripts
ascribe it to Damasus (366-84), and others to Hormisdas (514-23).
Many modern scholars believe it to have been composed by a cleric living
in the south of Gaul early in the sixth century.  The Decretum
contains a list of books approved to be read in the Church, along with a
list of apocryphal works.  Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and
the first two books of Maccabees are included in the list of approved
works.

Gelasius also introduced a litany of intercession,
the Deprecatio, into the beginning of the mass.  He also
introduced the Kyrie eleison, which had long been a response in
litanies, into the mass as a processional preface.  Gregory the Great
later eliminated the Deprecatio litany itself on non-festal days,
leaving only the responses - Kyrie eleison – reducing them to nine
in number, and changing the center three to Christe eleison.

494 Gelasius changed the pagan festival of the
Lupercalia into the feast of the Purification.

495 Macedonius (495-511) patriarch of
Constantinople. During his time, Constantinople was largely isolated
- in opposition to the Monophysite emperor Anastasios (491-518) and
the Monophysites of Egypt and Syria, and disdained by Rome because Acacius
was still commemorated in the liturgy in spite of Simplicius’
excommunication of him in 484.  In alliance with the Acoematae
(non-sleeping monks) Macedonius opposed the Monophysites’ interpolation of
“who was crucified for us” into the Trisagion (see 476 above).
[According to Fr. John Meyendorff, the interpolation does not constitute a
problem if the Trisagion is viewed as a hymn to the incarnate Word.
The Chalcedonian opposition to theopaschite formulae made it easy for the
Monophysites to paint them as Nestorians.  In fact, John II, bishop
of Rome, called the Acoematea “Nestorians” in his correspondence with the
emperor Justinian in 533-34.]

Macedonius condemned Philoxenus of Mabbug (see 485)
as a heretic.  Anastasios, however, supported Philoxenus in his
effort to replace Chalcedonian bishops with Monophysites.

496  Clovis, kind of the Salian Franks,
baptized, adopting the Orthodox Christian faith rather than
Arianism, as had been common for the Germanic tribes.

496 A decree from Gelasius, bishop of Rome, in this year included a
list of recommended and banned books.  This is an early step toward
the Index of Forbidden Books (see 1559).

498 Symmachus and Laurentius fought each other for
the office of bishop of Rome.  Laurentius withdrew in 506.

498 Pope Symmachus (498-514) introduced
the Gloria into the liturgy in Rome.  See 301+
above.  Its use was limited to liturgies celebrated by bishops on
Sundays and the feast days of martyrs.  Priests were eventually
allowed to include it in celebrations of the mass:  in the twelfth
century, this freedom was extended to Sundays other than Easter.

500 At about this time, due to the barbarian
invasions, the jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome was effectively confined
to central and southern Italy.