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.

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The Sixth Century

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Index

501 During this century, inhumation
replaced cremation in Northern France (as seen in evidence from the grave
yard at Hordain).

506 At the Armenian council of Dvin, that
church rejected the ruling of Chalcedon on the nature of Christ.
From that point on, the Armenian church was Monophysite in
Christology.

There were Monophysite bodies in Egypt (the Copts),
Ethiopia and Syria (later known as the Jacobites - see 542/43)
also.

506/7 (508?) The first Monophysite Syriac Bible
(known as the Philoxeniana) was commissioned by Bishop
Philoxenus of Mabbug (Hierapolis - see 485, 495).  Philoxenus
collaborated with his auxiliary bishop Polycarp.

At a certain point in his career, Philoxenus wrote
to denounce the opinion of a certain Stephen Bar Sudaili of Ephesus
that the punishment of the wicked was not eternal.
Stephen, who spent his closing years in a monastery near Jerusalem,
is thought by some to have been the moving force behind the
resurgence of Origenism in Palestine during the sixth century.
He has also been proposed as the author of the works of
Pseudo-Dionysios.

507/8 The emperor Anastasios (491-518) wrote to
Clovis, king of the Salian Franks, making him an honorary consul.
This is indicative of the east Roman diplomatic efforts among the Germanic
kingdoms during this era.  Clovis celebrated this honor by donning
the purple costume of consul and tossing coins to a crowd in Tours as he
enacted the “Adventus” ritual of the Roman emperors.  The occasion
for Anastasios’ congratulatory letter was Clovis’ victory over the
Visigoths at Vouille.  (The Salian Franks had become Orthodox, while
the Visigoths were still Arians at this time.)

508-11 The monk Severus, later patriarch of
Antioch, agitated against Chalcedon in Constantinople.

511 The Monophysite patriarch of Constantinople,
Timothy, following the example set by Peter the Fuller (see 476
above) introduced the Nicene Creed into the liturgy in that
city.

511 Clovis, king of the Salian Franks, presided
over a church council at Orleans.

512 Philoxenus of Mabbug was involved in a
theological dispute at a synod that met in Sidon.

512 A collection of forged letters to Peter the
Fuller (see 476 above) was published in this year.  The first letter
of the collection, in a fashion that was typical of Chalcedonians of this
era, stated that Christ’s sufferings could be attributed to his human
nature alone.  Chalcedonian denial of theopaschite formulae, in
accordance with Antiochene Christology, continued to provide the
Monophysites with ammunition.

512 Severus became patriarch of Antioch, after the Emperor
Anastasios had deposed the incumbent. Modern
theologians generally hold that Severus’ (Monophysite) Christology was
simply that of Cyril.  Like Cyril, Severus used the terms nature and
hypostasis as synonymns.  Christ, he held, was “out of” two
natures, but the union of the two implied that there is now only
one.  Where Chalcedon taught that each nature kept its own way of
being, for Severus such terminology implied that there were two actual
beings in Christ, something he was unwilling to admit.  Severus
wrote:  “One is the agent, the incarnate Word.  One is the
activity.  But the works - what is done by the activity - are
varied.”

In his criticism of Chalcedon, Severus pointed out
that the council had failed to identify the hypostasis of the union
of natures with the pre-existent Logos.  The fact that many
supporters of the council refused to admit that one of the Trinity
suffered in the flesh reinforced Monophysite rejection of the
council.  Before he was deposed as patrarch of Antioch in 518,
Severus himself deposed Epiphanius, the bishop of Tyre, for repeating one
of Theodoret’s arguments against theopaschism.

Severus criticized the extreme Monophysitism of
Julian of Helicarnassus.  One aspect of the dispute dealt with
original sin.  In Julian’s view, original sin involved human nature
in corruption, and his Christology was designed to shield Christ from
it.  Julian taught that Christ’s body was incorrupt from the moment
of His incarnation, not from His resurrection.  Christ was
homoousios with unfallen Adam, but not with us in our fallen
state.  Severus referred to Julian as a Manichee.  For Severus,
and the Christian East as a whole, original sin does not involve the
transmission of guilt, but rather of mortality.  It is not, in
itself, a state of sin, but a condition that Christ came to repair.

514-18 An apology for the council of Chalcedon
written by John Philoponus (the Grammarian), an Alexandrian,
appeared during this time.  John asserted that Christ must be
consubstantial to both God and man.  He maintained that Christ’s
humanity never existed without his divinity, but that the two together
constituted a single hypostasis - which he also termed “nature” as Cyril
oof Alexandria had done.  Without doubt, John admitted Cyril’s
theopaschite formulae.  As a philosopher, John developed an
interpretation of Aristotle in the light of Christian revelation.  He
wrote commentaries on several of Aristotle’s works.

516 Sigismund (516-23) kind of the
Burgundians.  During his reign, the Burgundians renounced the Arian
heresy and became Orthodox.

517 A synod at Epaone in Burgundy forbade the
clergy to hunt.

518 Justin I (518-527) became Roman
(Byzantine) emperor.  Justin, under the influence of his nephew
Justinian, pursued a reconciliation along Chalcedonian lines.  The
schism over the Henoticon ended (520).  In order to appease
Hormisdas, the bishop of Rome, Justin had the Eastern Patriarchs signed
the following statement (drafted by Hormisdas).

“The first condition of salvation is to keep the
norm of the true faith and in no way deviate from the established doctrine
of the Fathers. For it is impossible that the words our Lord Jesus Christ
who said, ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’
(Matt. 16:18), should not be verified.  And their truth has been
proved by the course of history, for in the Apostolic See the catholic
religion has always been kept unsullied...  And so I hope I may
deserve to be associated with you in the one communion which the Apostolic
See proclaims, in which the whole, true, and perfect security of the
Christian religion resides.  I promise from now on those who are
separated from the communion of the catholic Church, that is, who are not
in agreement with the Apostolic See, will not have their names read during
the sacred mysteries.  But if I attempt even the least deviation from
my profession, I admit that, according to my own declaration, I am an
accomplice to those whom I have condemned.  I have signed this my
profession with my own hand and have directed it to you, Hormisdas, the
holy and venerable pope of Rome.”  [The concern relative to
commemorating those who disagree with Rome could have been motivated by
Macedonius’ actions - see 495 above.]  The Formula of Hormisdas was
accepted in Constantinople, being read with the understanding that the
Apostolic See in view is the common property of Rome and
Constantinople.  The Formula of Hormisdas was accepted in
Constantinople, being read with the understanding that the Apostolic See
in view is the common property of Rome and Constantinople.  According
to Denny’s Papalism (referenced in Moss’ The Old Catholic
Movement) the other patriarchates of the East refused to sign this
statement, and were reconciled through a different agreement.

518 Severus, Monophysite bishop of Antioch,
was deposed.  He removed to Alexandria where he became the leader of
a Monophysite faction.  Severus died there between 538 and 542, but
not before a visit to Constantinople that ended in 536.

523 The Jews of Yemen, under Yusuf Dhu
Nuwas, massacred the Christian population of that country.
They were revenged by Elesbaan, King of Abyssinia, who conducted
a terrible slaughter of Jews in Yemen.

523 The Roman emperor Justin I issued an edict
against Arianism.

524 Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
(~470-524) executed at the order of the Ostrogoth king
Theodoric.  Boethius may have been suspected of having conspired with
the Justin I, the Orthodox Roman Emperor, perhaps to end the schism over
the Henoticon.  (Theodoric was an Arian, and it was to his advantage
that the Orthodox Roman population of Italy (roughly 90% of the total)
view the Empire to the east as heretical.)  While in prison, Boethius
wrote his most important work, The Consolation of Philosophy.
It is said to be the most influential book in the western Church during
the medieval period, after the Bible.  The Consolation
transmitted the main doctrines of Platonic philosophy to the Middle
Ages.  Boethius’ solution to the supposed conflict between God’s
foreknowledge and human freedom, contained in Book Five of the
Consolation, relies upon a distinction between conditional and
simple necessity.  It was considered authoritative for
centuries.  “[T]here are two kinds of necessity:  one is simple,
as the necessity by which all men are mortals; the other is
conditional, as in the case when, if you know someone is walking,
he must necessarily be walking.  ... God sees as present those future
things which result from human free will.  Therefore, from the
standpoint of divine knowledge these things are necessary because of the
condition of their being known by God; but, considered in
themselves, they lose nothing of the absolute freedom of their own
natures.”  Boethius also tranlated Aristotle’s Organon and
Porphyry’s Introduction to the Categories of Aristotle into
Latin.

525 The Pascal Tables of Dionysios Exiguus
(the Small) appeared about this year.  They were an attempt to
settle the question of the date of Easter for both East and West.
His tables, predicting Pascha for the years 532-626), employed a 19-year
cycle, and were grounded in St. Cyril of Alexandria’s tables.  They
eventually replaced those of Victor of Acquitaine in the West.  This
occurred at Rome in the 630s.  Dionysios, an eastern monk, Scythian
by birth, had come to Rome at the behest of bishop Gelasius (492-96), and
had been employed translating Greek documents for the papal archive.
He also invented the Anno Domini system for counting the
years.  According to modern scholarship, his system is in error – the
birth of Jesus being fixed variously from 2 to 8 B.C.  (See year
731.)

525 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, ordered John
I (523-26), bishop of Rome, to travel to Constantinople as his ambassador,
with orders to convince Justin to retract his 523 edict against
Arianism.  John was the first bishop of Rome to visit
Constantinople.

526 When John I came to Ravenna after his
unsuccessful mission to Constantinople, Theodoric imprisoned him, where he
died, probably of starvation.

526 Ephrem of Amida (526-44) became patriarch of
Antioch.  Ephrem’s Christology was similar to that of Leontius of
Jerusalem (see 532 below), and influenced both Justinian and the Fifth
Ecumenical Council.  He observed the fact that the Trisagion (“Holy
God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”) was viewed by the
Monophysites as a hymn to the Lord Jesus Christ, while Chalcedonians saw
it in reference to the Holy Trinity.  Hence, Peter the Fuller’s
addition (see 476 above) was logical to the Monophysites and problematic
to Chalcedonians.

526 An earthquake struck Antioch in Syria causing
widespread damage.

527Justinian (527-565) Roman emperor.  In one of
his edicts, Justinian referred to the patriarch of Constantinople as “the
head of all other churches.”

Apparently, the title “patriarch” began to
be used of the bishops of the larger cities during Justinian's reign -
though these bishops had enjoyed a certaain influence over broad areas
surrounding their cities since before the council of Nicaea.

527-32 War between the Persian and Roman
empires.

529Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery at Monte Cassino
in Central Italy.

Justinian closed the university of Athens,
replacing it with a Christian university.  Damascius, the last
Scholarch, travelled to Persia with six other Neo-Platonic
philosophers.  They returned to Athens in 533.  The closing of
the university signals the end of pagan Neo-Platonic philosophy.
(Justinian's decree had forbidden city council funds to be used to hire
pagans in education.)

529Council of Orange (Auriculum).  Taught that (a) as a
result of Adam’s transgression both death and sin have passed to all his
descendants; (b) man’s free will is so weakened that he cannot believe in
or love God without the assistance of grace; (c) the Old Testament saints
owed their merits to grace, not any natural good; (d) the grace of baptism
enables all Christians to accomplish all that’s needed for salvation; (e)
predestination to evil is to be anathematized; and (f) in every good
action the first impulse comes from God, and it is this impulse that
causes us to seek baptism and, with God’s help, fulfill our
duties.

529 Note on the “Glory Be.”  St. John
Cassian had mentioned in his Institutes (Book II), on the subject of
nocturnal prayers, that the custom in Gaul was to repeat the Glory Be at
the end of each Psalm.  In the East, it was sung once, at the end of
all of the Psalms.  The Greek form of this doxology translates as,
“Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever
and unto ages of ages, amen.”  In this year, the words “as it was in
the beginning, is” were added just before “now” by the Council of Vaison,
“after the example of the apostolic see.”

529 Five thousand people killed due to an
earthquake at Antioch in Syria.  Justinian bankrolled the city’s
reconstruction.

529 A revolt broke out in Samaria in the summer of
this year, provoked by the destruction of some Samaritan synagogues as
part of Justinian’s program of repression.  The Samaritans, under a
certain Julian, massacred Christians, then attempted (unsuccessfully) to
convince the Persians to invade Palestine.

530 Seven thousand people killed due to an
earthquake in Laodicea.  Again the emperor provided funds for
reconstruction from the treasury.

530 Justinian conducted a persecution of pagans in
Constantinople.  The property of many of the accused was
confiscated.

During his reign, Justinian also persecuted the
Montanists (see 157), greatly reducing their numbers.  Their final
persecution occurred in 722.

531 St. Sabbas, the founder of the Laura of
Mar-Sabbas, arrived in Constantinople in April and asked the emperor to
intervene against the current abbot, Nonnus, and his followers, who were
promoting Origenism.  Justinian acted in 542 (see below - some
authorities say this was in 543).

St. Sabbas died the following year (532).  He
had become a monk in Cappadocia, travelling on pilgrimage to Palestine in
457.  In around 483, he began a monastic community in the Kidron
gorge, northwest of the Dead sea.  Altogether, he established 14
monasteries and four hospices in southern Palestine.  St. Sabbas was
also an opponent of Monophysite Christology.

531 Abbot Nonnus’ (see 531 immediately above)
principal lieutenant, Leontius of Byzantium, traveled from the
Mar-Sabbas monastery near Jerusalem, where he had lived since ~520, to
Constantinople, to participate in a synod considering the Christological
dispute.  Leontius’ most famous work, Three Books Against the
Nestorians and the Eutychians, was likely written between this year
and 542, when Justinian condemned Origenism.  For Leontius - as
typical with Origenists - Christ was the intellect that had not fallen
before the beginning of creation, the one who remained in an “essential
union” with the Logos.  In his view, the passion took place in the
flesh of Christ after his soul had freely chosen to take on human nature
in order to restore it.  He used the term ousia to refer to
simple existence, “not the what, not the how.”  Thus “one according
to ousia” meant unity of existence, which is how Leontius
understood the union of the divine and human in Christ.  Leontius
identified the hypostasis with the individual - an individual
separate from others of the same nature, but perhaps uniting distinct
natures (such as the body and soul in a human) in a common being.
Leontius’ key contribution to Christology is the concept of
enhypostaton, a thing existing within a
hypostasis.  Both Nestorians and Eutychians had assumed that
no nature could exist except in a hypostasis that shared that
nature - one hypostasis meant one nature; two natures meant at
least two hypostases.  For Leontius, the subject of the union
among the Logos, the unfallen soul, and the fallen human nature, was the
single hypostasis, the incarnate Christ.

531 In the summer of this year, the empress
Theodora convinced Justinian to end the persecution of the
Monophysites.  Groups of monks were recalled from exile.

532 The Nika Revolt.  The original
Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) was burned down by the rioters, along
with the Chalke (the bronze-doored building through which one entered the
Imperial Palace), the Senate House, the Church of Holy Peace, the Church
of Saint Theodore Sphoracius, the Church of Saint Aquilina, the hospitals
of Eubulus and Sampson, and the Baths of Alexander.  The revolt was
suppressed when Goth and German soldiers under Belisarius and Mundus
slaughtered 3500 to 4000 rioters in the Hippodrome.

532 Construction began on Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople.   The project took five years [532-537] to
complete, and on December 27, 537, Patriarch Menas consecrated the
magnificent church.

532 Leontius of Jerusalem, long
misidentified with Leontius of Byzantium (see 531), wrote on Christology
between this year and 536.  He completed the thought of Chalcedon by
stating that the same hypostasis, the Word, who unified the two
natures in Christ also suffered - hypostatically, in his human
nature.  “The Logos is said to have suffered according to the
hypostasis, for within his hypostasis he assumed a passible
essence besides his own impassible essence, and what can be asserted of
the essence can be asserted of the hypostasis.”

532 Collatio cum Severianis.
Early in his reign (and again, later) Justinian violently persecuted the
Monophysites.  But in around 531, he adopted a policy of
tolerance.  The Empress Theodora arranged a conference, over
which Justinian presided, inviting six Chalcedonian and six
Monophysite representatives.  The Monophysites quoted many
fathers and “Dionysius the Areopagite, all of whom assert that there is
one nature of God the Logos after the union” in support of their
position.  This is the earliest known reference to the works of the
Pseudo-Dionysius.  Hypatius, bishop of Ephesus, pointed out that
these works could not be genuine.  Severus himself had been invited,
but declined to attend.  Between 531 and 536, many famous
Monophysites visited Constantinople and were well-received by the royal
family.

533 Justinian’s general Belisarius defeated the
Vandals in North Africa at Tricameron.  The Vandal kingdom was
destroyed.

533 The emperor Justinian issued an edict
declaring that one of the Trinity suffered in the flesh.  He
sought confirmation of this view from John II, patriarch of Rome
(533-35).

534 At Justinian’s request, John II, patriarch of
Rome, condemned the Sleepless Monks (see 448-84) as Nestorians for their
opposition to Justinian’s theopaschite formula of 533.

534 The exiled patriarch of Antioch, Severus
(see 518), visited Constantinople at the invitation of the emperor and
empress.

535 In June, the patriarch of Constantinople,
Epiphanius, died.  The Empress Theodora, a staunch Monophysite,
maneuvered to have Anthimus (Anthem of Trebizond) appointed
patriarch.  Anthimus, a closet Monophysite, was deposed at a council
in 536.

535 On 14 November, at the insistence of Theodora,
an edict was issued that banished pimps and keepers of brothels from all
major cities of the empire.

535 A large volcanic eruption caused temperatures
to remain colder than normal through 550.  535-536 was one unceasing
winter.  The volcano responsible for this temporary change in climate
may have been Krakatau.

A drought began in Mongolia.  Defeated by the
Turks, the Avars began their trek toward Europe in 552, arriving around
560.  Their migration resulted in the movement of more people into
what remained of the Empire.  There is some speculation that the Avar
humiliation at the hands of the Turks was due to the drought, brought on
by the volcanic eruption 535:  the Avar economy was based on horses,
which have less efficient digestive systems and are more susceptible to
changesin climate than cattle, raised by the Turks.

536 The Roman empire  recaptured southern
Italy and Sicily, including Rome.  The exarchate of Ravenna was
established in 568.

536 The church historian Evagrius born
(536-600).  In his Church History, he attested to the practice
of communion among the very young:  “when there remained a good
quantity of the holy portions of the undefiled body of Christ our God, for
uncorrupted boys from among those who attended the school of the
undermaster to be sent for to consume them.”

536 On 19 February, the bishop of Rome,
Agapetus I (535-36) visited Constantinople as an ambassador
from Theodahad, the Gothic king of Italy, to avert an impending war
between the Empire and the Goths over the murder of a lady named
Amalasuntha.  She had been the only daughter of Theodoric, and an
ally of Justinian.  Agapetus refused to recognize Anthimus as
patriarch, given the latter’s support for Monophysitism.  Justinian’s
hands were tied, since he desired the support of the Roman populace in the
upcoming war with the Goths.  In March, Anthimus was deposed.
On 21 April, Agapetus died as he prepared to return to Italy, and the
Monophysites in the city celebrated openly.

Synod endemousa under Patriarch
Menas.  The new patriarch of
Constantinople, Menas, held a council, which convened on May 2, to confirm
the deposition of Anthimus and to try the leading Monophysites in the city
- Zooras, Peter of Apamena, and Severus.  Anthimus himself couldn’t
be located.  Theodora had hidden him in the gynaeceum of the
Imperial Palace, where none but women and eunuchs were allowed.  He
was discovered there after Theodora’s death in 548, and Justinian treated
him graciously.  Peter of Apamena and Zooras were anathematized, as
was Severus, on 6 August.  He fled to Egypt again in exile.
(Synods had been meeting in Constantinople since before the council of
Chalcedon in 451.  They began not as regular but occasional
gatherings, as the emperor would summon the bishops sojourning
(endemousa) in the city.  Hence the name Synod
endemousa.)

The persecution of Monophysites in Syria resumed,
and it began in Egypt, where Theodora’s appointee, Theodosius, patriarch
of Alexandria, was deposed in favor of a monk named Paul, who brutalized
the Monophysites there.  Paul set out to remove heretical bishops
from his patriarchate.  He was opposed by the deacon Psoes, whom
Rhodon, the Augustal Prefect, had arrested and tortured.  When Psoes
died from this treatment, the empress Theodora initiated an investigation
(see 542).

After the death of Pope Agapetus, the empress
Theodora determined to make Vigilius, the papal nuncio in Constantinople,
the next bishop of Rome.  She provided him with 200 pounds of gold
and letters to Belisarius and his wife Antonina.  Theodora intended
for Vigilius to restore Anthimus and perhaps to denounce Chalcedon.
Unfortunately for her plans, King Theodahad of the Goths had already had
Silverius elected pope.

Two Palestinian Origenists, Theodore Ascidas and
Domitian, attended the synod of 536.  Domitian was later appointed
bishop of Ancyra.  Theodore Ascidas became bishop of Caesarea in
Cappadocia and came to exert so much influence over Justinian that
Patriarch Menas and the papal representative, Pelagius, sought to break
it.

537 Belisarius deposed Silverius, bishop of Rome. A
document had been forged to prove that Silverius had conspired with the
Goths.  Silverius was given the opportunity to restore Anthimus as
patriarch of Constantinople.  When he refused, he was exiled to
Patara in Lycia, and Vigilius became bishop of Rome (March 29,
537).

539 The Goths razed Milan, reportedly killing
300,000 adult males and giving the women to their Burgundian allies as
slaves.

540 Belisarius conquered Ravenna.

540 Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus
(490-585) founded a monastery at Vivarium.  He had his monks copy
manuscripts of both Christian and pagan authors.  In 519, Cassiodorus
had published his Chronicon, a history of the world from Adam to
519.  His De Anima provides an overview of scripture and the
Church fathers, then describes the seven liberal arts.  This was
widely read during the Middle Ages.

540-45 War between the Persian and Roman
empires.

540 The Kutrigurs (a Bulgar tribe) captured
thirty-two Roman fortresses in Illyricum and raided as far as
Constantinople.

542 A Monophysite Syrian monk named John (John
of Ephesus), after gaining the favor of the empress Theodora, became
bishop of Ephesus.  John wrote an ecclesiastical history in three
volumes (~585), a work on the lives of the Eastern saints, and was
responsible for the baptism of over 70,000 pagans in Asia Minor.  He
and his followers built 98 churches and twelve monasteries in Asia, Caria,
Lydia and Phrygia.

542 The patriarch of Antioch, Ephraim, held a
synod that condemned Origen’s doctrines.  The Origenists, in
reply, convinced the patriarch of Jerusalem to strike Ephraim’s name from
the diptychs.  Menas, patriarch of Constantinople, and Pelagius, the
papal representative, convinced Justinian to act, resulting in Justinian’s
condemnation.

542Justinian published a condemnation of Origenism and the
mystical speculations of Evagrius (see above, year 375).  This to
quell the controversy in Palestine surrounding the teachings of the
Orgenist New Laura community (see 531 above, St. Sabbas), which had become
a dispute between the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem.

Justinian’s anathemas against Origen:  “(1)
Whoever says or thinks that human souls pre-existed, i.e., that they had
previously been spirits and holy powers, but that, satiated with the
vision of God, they had turned to evil, and in this way the divine love in
them had died out and they had therefore become souls and had been
condemned to punishment in bodies, shall be anathema; (2) If anyone says
or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was united with God
the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the Virgin, let him be
anathema; (3) If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ was first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards
there was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him
be anathema; (4) If anyone says or thinks that the Word of God has become
like to all heavenly orders, so that for the cherubim he was a cherub, for
the seraphim a seraph: in short, like all the superior powers, let him be
anathema; (5) If anyone says or thinks that, at the resurrection, human
bodies will rise spherical in form and unlike our present form, let him be
anathema; (6) If anyone says that the heaven, the sun, the moon, the
stars, and the waters that are above heavens, have souls, and are
reasonable beings, let him be anathema; (6) If anyone says or thinks that
Christ the Lord in a future time will be crucified for demons as he was
for men, let him be anathema; (8) If anyone says or thinks that the power
of God is limited, and that he created as much as he was able to compass,
let him be anathema; (9) If anyone says or thinks that the punishment of
demons and of impious men is only temporary, and will one day have an end,
and that a restoration will take place of demons and of impious men, let
him be anathema.

“Anathema to Origen and to that Adamantius, who set
forth these opinions together with his nefarious and execrable and wicked
doctrine and to whomsoever there is who thinks thus, or defends these
opinions, or in any way hereafter at any time shall presume to protect
them.”

The patriarch of Jerusalem, who had previously
struck Ephraim’s name from the diptychs, signed Justinian’s condemnation
of Origenism.

542 The bubonic plague hit
Constantinople.  Several tens of thousands died.  Apparently,
cooler temperatures due to the volcanic eruption in 535 allowed the plague
to become active in fleas in Africa.  These were carried north with
the ivory trade.

542 A trial was held in Gaza over the Psoes affair
(see 536).  The papal representative, Pelagius, presided.  Paul,
patriarch of Alexandria, was deposed, and the prefect Rhodon was beheaded,
though he produced 13 letters from the emperor authorizing his
actions.

542/43 Jacob Barradaeus (~490-578) ordained
bishop of Syria, with the support of the empress Theodora.  After
persecution of the Monophysites resumed in 536, she received from Sheik
Harith ibn Jabala, king of a small buffer state , who informed her that
the Christians in his realm, mostly Monophysites, were being destroyed by
the imperial commissioners.  They were in need of a bishop to ordain
men who had died at the hands of their oppressors.  Theodora chose
Jacob because of his ability to disguise himself as a beggar - the name
Baradaeus means “rags” or “tatters.”

Baradaeus was instrumental in organizing those who
repudiated the council of Chalcedon.  Hence, they came to be termed
“Jacobites.”  These Monophysites had set up their own rival patriarch
of Antioch.  They called the Chalcedonian Orthodox “Melchites,”
meaning “Emperor’s Men.”  He is said to have wandered Asia Minor,
Syria and Mesopotamia on foot, ordaining 80,000 priests, 89 bishops, and
two patriarchs.

545 Slavic tribes raided Thrace, but were turned back by Narses.

545 The emperor Justinian suppressed the
Manichaeans.  He attempted to convert those who had been arrested,
but they remained firm in their beliefs.  They were then tortured and
killed; their bodies were buried at sea, and their property
confiscated.

545 John Scholasticus (~503-77) compiled a
collection of canon law (the “Collection of Canons”) for the Church in the
east.  His compilation is the earliest that has been preserved.
John served as patriarchal legate from Antioch in Constantinople until
565, when he was named patriarch of Constantinople by Justin II.

546 Prompted by a suggestion by Theodore Ascidas,
Justinian promulgated the Edict of Three Chapters.  (The
‘Three Chapters’ later came to refer to the works condemned, not to this
edict.)  This edict condemned the Letter of lbas of Edessa to Maris,
praising Theodore of Mopsuestia; the works of Theodore himself; and the
writings of Theodoret of Cyrrhus against Cyril.  To make it plain
that Chalcedon was inconsistent with Nestorianism, it also asserted that
the Chalcedonian definition should be interpreted in this light.
Theodoret and Ibas had been restored to their sees by the council of
Chalcedon, so, unlike Theodore, they were not personally condemned.
The theological effect was to emphasize the unity of Christ’s
nature(s).

547 After the death of Abbot Nonnus in this year,
the Origenists were split into two camps:  the Isochristoi
of New Laura, who held that in the restoration man will be united with
God as Christ is; and the Protoktistai or Tetradites of the Laura
of Firminus, about whom little is known.

547 Cosmas Indicopleustes had finished his
Christian Topography by this year.  A merchant and wide
traveler, Cosmas was likely a Nestorian.  Taking the Old Testament
temple as a model for the universe, Cosmas’ Topography presented a
planar earth much larger than the sun, which circled a conical mountain to
the north.  This cosmology is said to be in agreement with and
subordinate to Nestorian philosophy.  A debate raged in Alexandria
over Cosmas’ work, and he was refuted by John the Grammarian (see 514-18)
and his views had very little influence.

548 Slavs again raided the Balkans, penetrating to Dyrrachium (on the
Adriatic coast of Albania).

548Vigilius, patriarch of Rome (537-55), who had been brought
to Constantinople the previous year, signed a condemnation of Theodore
personally as a heretic and the Three Chapters - thus agreeing with
Justinian’s edict of 546.  In 551 Vigilius withdrew this
condemnation.  For his condemnation of Theodore and the Three
Chapters, Vigilius himself was condemned by the bishops of Milan, Ravenna,
and Aquileja.  The metropolitan of Aquileja in Istria took advantage
of the schism with Rome to stretch his control over Grado.  Istria
remained out of communion with Rome until the council of Pavia in
698.

548 Death of the Empress Theodora.

549 Samaritans and Jews staged a bloody revolt at
Caesarea.  They murdered Stephanus, proconsul of Palestine.
Their leaders were subsequently executed.  The Samaritans, who had
recently been reported to have adopted Christianity, openly resumed their
traditional worship.

549 John of Ephesus (see 542) denounced a group of
senators, grammarians, sophists, lawyers and physicians.  They were
accused of paganism, tortured, whipped, and imprisoned.

549 Seventy-one bishops met at Orleans.  They
reaffirmed the bishop of Rome’s earlier condemnation of Eutyches and
Nestorios.

550 An African council excommunicated Vigilius,
bishop of Rome, for his pronouncement in 548 agreeing with Justinian’s
Edict of Three Chapters (546).

550 Bodies were buried in the north of France with
an east-west alignment from about this date.

551 The Kutrigurs rampaged through the
Balkans.

552 Silk worms introduced from China.

552 Justinian gave command of his forces in Italy
to his chamberlain, the eunuch Narses.  Narses destroyed the
Ostrogoth kingdom in the battle of Taginae.  The Goths charged
the Byzantine’s pikemen, while Byzantine archers attacked from the
flanks.  The battle for Italy had left the countryside barren and
depopulated.

553Fifth Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople.
Eutychius, patriarch of Constantinople, presided.  164 bishops
attended, including 14 from Africa.  Justinian, with Vigilius still
captive, succeeded in having the council condemn Origen and the Three
Chapters, and Vigilius eventually was forced to assent to
this.  He was excommunicated by the African clergy for his betrayal
(as it was interpreted) of Chalcedon.  Vigilius died on his way back
to Rome.

From Session VII of the Acts of the Council,
addressed to Vigilius:  “If your blessedness is willing to meet
together with us and the most holy Patriarchs, and the most religious
bishops, and to treat of the Three Chapters and to give, in unison with us
all, a suitable form of the Orthodox faith, as the Holy Apostles and the
holy Fathers and the four Councils have done, we will hold thee as our
head and primate...  if you have condemned them [the Three Chapters],
in accordance with those things which you did before, we have already many
such statements and need no more; but if you have written now something
contrary to these things which were done by you before, you have condemned
yourself by your own writing, since you have departed from Orthodox
doctrine and have defended impiety.  And how can you expect us to
receive such a document from you?”

According to Norwich, Justinian sent a decree to
the council that Vigilius’s name should be struck from the diptychs,
though he was careful to stress that he was not severing communion with
Rome itself.

To reinterpret Chalcedon in a way pleasing to the
Alexandrians, the council gave approval to the hypostatic union (Cyril’s
natural union?).  It also endorsed (in the Tenth Anathema) the
controversial liturgical formula, “that our Lord Jesus Christ who was
crucified in the flesh is True God.”

The Third Anathema (clarifying that the
hypostasis of the Logos is He Who Suffered - affirming
theopaschism):

If anyone shall say that the wonder-working Word of
God is one [Person] and the Christ that suffered another; or shall say
that God the Word was with the woman-born Christ, or was in him as one
person in another, but that he was not one and the same our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Word of God, incarnate and made man, and that his miracles and
the sufferings which of his own will he endured in the flesh were not of
the same [Person]:  let him be anathema.

From the Fourth Anathema:

As the word “union” has many meanings, the
followers of the impiety of Apollinarius and Eutyches, assuming the
disappearance of the natures, affirm a union by confusion.  On the
other hand the followers of Theodore and of Nestorius, rejoicing in the
division of the natures, introduce only a union of relation.  But the
holy Church of God, rejecting equally the impiety of both heresies,
recognizes the union of God the Word with the flesh according to
synthesis, that is, according to hypostasis.  For in the
mystery of Christ the union according to synthesis preserves the two
natures which have combined without confusion and without
separation.

The Fifth Anathema (clarifying Chalcedon’s
use of the expression “one hypothesis,” and repudiating the Nestorian
sense):

If anyone understands the expression “only one
Person of our Lord Jesus Christ” in this sense, that it is the union of
many hypostases, and if he thus attempts to introduce into the mystery of
Christ two hypostases, or two Persons, and, after having introduced
two persons, speaks of one Person only out of dignity, honor, or worship,
as both Theodosius and Nestorius insanely have written; if anyone shall
calumniate the holy Council of Chalcedon, pretending that it made use of
this expression [one hypostasis] in this impious sense, and if he
will not recognize rather that the Word of God is united to the flesh
hypostatically, and that therefore there is only one hypostasis or
only one Person, and that the holy Council of Chalcedon has professed in
this sense the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ:  let him be
anathema.  For since one of the Holy Trinity has been made man,
viz.:  God the Word, the Holy Trinity has not been increased
by the addition of another person or hypostasis.

From the Sixth Anathema:

... if anyone shall call her [the virgin
Mary] manbearer or Christbearer, as if Christ were not God, and shall not
confess she is truly Godbearer [Theotokos]... let him be
anathema.

From the Seventh Anathema:

If anyone using the expression “in two natures” ...
shall take the expression ... so as to divide the parties, or recognizing
the two natures in the only Lord Jesus, God the Word made man, does not
content himself with taking in a theoretical manner the difference of the
natures which compose him (which differences are not destroyed by the
union between them, for one is composed of the two and the two are in
one), but shall make use of the number [two] to divide the natures or to
make of them two Persons properly so called:  let him be
anathema.

From the Eighth Anathema:

If anyone confesses that the union took place out
of two natures and speaks of the one incarnate nature of God the Word and
does not understand ... that out of the divine and human natures, when
union by hypostasis took place, one Christ was formed; but from
these expressions tries to introduce one nature or essence of the Godhead
and manhood of Christ; let him be anathema.

The Twelfth Anathema explicitly condemns two
interpretations of scripture.  The first condemned interpretation is
that Christ, when he said “Receive the Holy Spirit,” merely made a sign
and did not actually give the Holy Spirit.  The second is that Thomas
was affirming Christ’s deity when he said, “My Lord and my God,” but that
he was simply making an exclamation, expressing his wonder at the
resurrection.

Unfortunately for Justinian, and the subsequent
history of the Roman Empire, the Monophysites were not
appeased.

Origen was condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical
Council, and many of his doctrines were explicitly listed as cause for
anathema:  (1) the pre-existence of souls; (2) that created beings
were originally only rational souls, who later took bodies to themselves
because they tired of the sight of God; (3) that celestial bodies are
rational beings become material through love of evil; (4) that men are
such rational souls in whom the love of God had grown cold, and so taken
bodies, and that demons are like men in this, but more evil; (5) that
humans may become angels or demons; (6) that demons are either fallen
angels or fallen human souls, and that the world was created not by the
Trinity but by a spirit who became Christ through unfailing devotion to
God; (7) that this Christ clothed himself with the form of all classes of
fallen rational beings, including man, to restore them; (8) that Christ is
an intelligence (nous) united to God the Word, and only called God because
he is united with the Logos, and the Logos is only called Christ because
he is united with the intelligence; (9) that the intelligence was
incarnate, descended into hell and ascended into heaven, and not the
Logos; (10) that Christ’s resurrection body was ethereal and shaped like a
sphere, and the bodies of all those resurrected will be as well; (11) that
at the future judgment all matter will be destroyed, leaving only spirit;
(12) that all rational beings are united with God in the same was as the
intelligence is, and that the kingdom of Christ shall have an end; (13)
that the Christ is not different from other rational beings and that all
will be placed at God’s right hand as they were in their pre-existence;
(14) that hypostases and numbers and bodies will disappear and all things
will be united into one; and (15) that, all things will be spirit, and the
life of the spirits in the end will be as in the beginning.  [This is
a point of some uncertainty:  the fifteen condemnations of Origen may
actually be the product of a local synod held in Constantinople in
544.]

553 The Franks sent an embassy to
Constantinople.  This embassy included Angles in order to impress the
emperor with the Frankish king's influence over Britain.  This from
the Greek historian Procopios.

554 Eighteen bishops of the Nestorian church in
Persia under Patriarch Joseph reaffirmed Duophysitism against the Fifth
Ecumenical Council’s denunciation of the Three Chapters.  Thirty
years later, the Nestorians condemned Justinian as a heretic.

555? Death of St. Romanos.  He had been
a deacon in the Church of the Resurrection in Berytus (Beirut).
During the reign of the emperor Anastasius I (491-518), he moved to
Constantinople.  Romanos had a harsh and rasping voice.  During
a religious retreat on Christmas Eve, he was given a vision of the Virgin
Mary, who held a scroll, which she told him to eat.  Romanos did so,
and was immediately blessed with a wonderful singing voice.  He later
composed hymns which were essentially sermons put to music.  Romanos
has been termed “the greatest ecclesiastical poet of all ages.”

556 Pelagius became patriarch of
Rome.  Served through 561.  Pelagius was strongly opposed to
the condemnation of the Three Chapters, but Justinian appointed him
patriarch anyway, judging, rightly, that he would change his mind.
Pelagius supported the decisions of the Constantinople (553).

From the time of Pelagius until 741, the name of
the person elected bishop of Rome was sent to the emperor in
Constantinople or to his exarch in Ravenna for confirmation.  The
church in Rome accompanied this name with a large payment, effectively
tribute.

557 The Alans relayed to Roman officials in Lazica (the east end of the
Black Sea) an offer of alliance from the Avars, a Turkic/Mongolian tribe
that had moved west into the region north of the Caucasus, fleeing Turkish
enemies in Central Asia.

559 Pagans in Constantinople ridiculed - marched in
a mock procession.  Their books were burned.

559 The Kutrigurs crossed the frozen Danube and attacked Macedonia,
Thessaly, Gallipoli and Constantinople.  They were defeated by
Belisarius’ forces and returned to their homeland, near the Don.
Justinian induced the Utigurs, a rival Bulgar tribe living east of the
Don, to attack the Kutrigurs as they retreated.  Both tribes were
greatly weakened by the war that resulted.

560+ The Suevis renounced Arianism and became
Orthodox.  The Suevis lived in the northwestern Iberian
peninsula.

561 Julius, bishop of Rome (337-352), had founded a
certain church in Rome.  In this year, that church was dedicated to
St. Philip and St. James.  The dedication ceremony is the origin for
the feast day for those saints - May 1.

561 The Avars (having absorbed the Kutrigurs and
Utigurs) moved to a position north of the lower Danube.

563 The Irish monk Columba (520-97) founded
a monastery on Iona.  Columba had been educated and ordained to the
diaconate by St. Finnian of Clonard.  Before traveling to Iona,
Columba had founded monasteries at Derry, Durrow and, possibly,
Kells.

563 A council meeting in Braga decreed
against the Priscillianists (see 380) that Satan was not an uncreated
being.  It also attacked the notion that he is “the principle and
substance” of evil.  Instead, the council asserted, he “was
originally a good angel created by God.”

565 Death of Justinian.

565 John Scholasticus named patriarch of
Constantinople by the emperor Justin II.  John first negotiated with
the Monophysites, then acted in accordance with the emperor Justin II’s
(565-78) desire to repress them.

565 The emperor Justin II refused to pay tribute to
the Avars.

565 The emperor Justin II, at some point
during his reign, decreed that the birth of the Savior should be
celebrated on 25 December throughout the empire.  It is thought
that, at this time, the church in Jerusalem finally adopted 25 December as
Christmas Day.

567 Allied with the Lombards (who were then living
in Pannonia, west of the Tisza) the Avars defeated the Gepids and
conquered their territory in eastern Pannonia and Dacia.

568 The Lombards took control of northern
Italy, an event that would give Gregory the Great, the future bishop
of Rome, a small measure of independence from the Roman emperor. The
Lombard movement into Italy was a result of the Avar migration of the
550s.

The Avars invaded Dalmatia.  The emperor
Justin II (565-578) bought peace for 80,000 pieces of silver.

568 The exarchate of Ravenna established.

572 The Lombards conquered south-central Italy,
creating the duchies of Spolento and Benevento.  The Byzantines
retained control of a corridor between Ravenna and Rome, splitting the
northern Lombard kingdom from its southern duchies.

572 The Monophysite bishop John of Ephesus
(507-586) was imprisoned by the emperor Justin II.  See 542
above.

573 The Persians invaded the Roman Empire,
seizing the city of Dara on the Tigris.  Among the 292,000 captives
taken were included 2000 beautiful Christian virgins the Persian emperor,
Chosroes, intended to present to the Turkish Khan.  (This is the
first mention of the Turks in the history of the West.)  At a river,
the Christian virgins separated from their captors to bathe, then drowned
themselves rather than enter the Khan's harem.

573 Death of Emilian.  He had been a hermit in
the Spanish Rioja, then priest in Berceo.  Emilian is said to have
rid the home of the nobleman Honorius of an evil spirit who would soil
dishes with the bones and dung of animals.  Emilian also cured the
nobleman Sicorius' slave girl of blindness and he exorcised several others
of evil spirits.  Emilian's hermitage later grew into a famous
monastery - Saint Emilian of the cowl.

577 The West Saxon Ceawlin won a battle at
Deorham, cutting the Britons in Wales off from the Britons to the
South.  There is speculation that the Britons were driven back in
this century due to a significant population loss.  The Celts of
Britain remained in commercial contact with the Roman empire after the
withdrawal of the legions in 409.  Apparently, though these contacts,
the plague spread (see 542 above) to Britain.

578 Death of Jacob Baradaeus.

579 A revolt by Baalbek defeated.  Some who
were tortured revealed that several high-ranking officials were involved
in pagan cults.  The governor of Edessa, Anatolios, was
implicated.  He was accused of having commissioned a portrait
ostensibly of Christ, but actually of Apollo, so that he could
surreptitiously worship the pagan god.  The governor in turn accused
the patriarch of Antioch, Gregory, and the patriarch of Alexandria’s
representative, Eulogios, of human sacrifice.  A recent earthquake at
Daphne, near Antioch, was thought to have been caused by this crime.
Gregory traveled to Constantinople and lavished gifts on the emperor
(Maurice) and the court.  He was permitted to return to his
see.  Anatolios, on the other hand, was condemned to
death.

580Maximos the Confessor (580-662) born.

580 The Lombards destroyed the Benedictine
monastery of Monte Cassino.  The monks fled to Rome.

580+ The exarch of Ravenna, Smaragdus, launched a
raid on the schismatic Istrians (see 548 above).  He captured many of
the clergy and forced them to accept the decrees of the Fifth
Ecumenical council.

581 The emperor Tiberius II Constantine (578-582)
established an elite corp of 15,000 barbarians, which eventually developed
into the Varangian Guards.

581 The Slavs invaded the Balkans.

582 The Avars captured Sirmium by trickery.
An inscription from the ruins of Sirmium reads, “Lord Jesus, help the city
and smite the Avars and watch over Romania and the writer.
Amen.”

582 John “the Faster” (died 595) became patriarch
of Constantinople.  For his works of charity and his ascetic
practice, he is regarded as a saint.

582 Athens was sacked by Slavic
invaders.

582 Death of Felix, bishop of Nantes.  He was
responsible for the conversion to Christianity of the Saxons in the area
north of the Loire.  These Saxons traded with their counterparts in
southeastern England.

584 Singidunum (modern Belgrade) captured by the
Avars.

585 The Armenian bishop Kardutsat, with
seven priests, went on a missionary trip to the steppes north of the
Caucasians.  He succeeded in baptizing many Huns and in translating
books into their language.  Though Kardutsat was very likely a
Monophysite, the Roman emperor sent him supplies.  Kardutsat’s
successor, the bishop Maku, taught the Huns the rudiments of
agriculture.

585+  Columbanus (545-615) left the
monastery in Bangor, Ireland, and established monasteries in Gaul:
Annegray, Luxeil, and Les Fontaines, all near the Vosges mountains.
He later relocated across the Alps in Italy, founding a monastery in
Bobbio.  Monasticism and missionary activity were connected in this
era.  Columbanus wrote of his “vow to make” his “way to the
heathen to preach the gospel to them.”

586 The Slavs laid siege to Thessalonica.

587 The Slavs moved into Epirus, Thessaly, Attica, Euboea and the
Peloponnese.

587 The British archbishops of London and York fled
to Wales.

587 (588?) A synod meeting in Constantinople
ascribed the title “Ecumenical Patriarch” to John IV (John “the Faster”,
582-95) of Constantinople because it was the capital of the “ecumenical”
empire.

587-9 The Visigoths renounced the Arian heresy and
became Orthodox, as the Burgundians (see 516) and Suevis (see 560+) had
already done, and as the Lombards were to do (see 619 and 636
below).  The Visigoth king Leovigild had repented of Arianism on his
deathbed in 586; his successor, King Recared, then received instruction in
the Orthodox Christian faith.  Their conversions were at least
partially due to the efforts of Leander, bishop of Seville.

589The third Council of Toledo added the filioque clause to
the Creed of Constantinople (381).  This addition gradually
spread in the West, and was finally incorporated into the liturgy at Rome,
probably in 1014 at the coronation of Henry II, with unhappy
consequences.  This is the first mention in the West of the creed as
an element of the liturgy.  See note on Peter the Fuller, 476.

This council also introduced the creed into the
liturgy in the West, placing it before the Lord’s prayer, where it remains
in the Mozarabic rite.  The creed was not used in the mass at Rome
until the eleventh century.

589? John of Biclar, a Visigoth, founded a
monastery at Biclar in Spain.  John was one of the last Westerners to
have an understanding of classical culture, having spent seven years in
Constantinople in the 560s and 570s following the classical
syllabus.  John later became bishop of Gerona

590 Gregory the Great bishop of Rome
(590-604).

Gregory chafed when John, patriarch of
Constantinople, termed himself the Ecumenical Patriarch:  “It is very
difficult to hear patiently that one who is our brother and fellow bishop
should alone be called bishop, while all others are despised.  But in
this pride of his, what else is intimated but that the days of Antichrist
are already near?  For he is imitating him who, despising the company
of angels, attempted to ascend to the pinnacle of greatness.”
Gregory called himself the “servant of the servants of God.”

In a letter to John of Constantinople, Gregory
wrote, “Certainly Peter, the first of the apostles, himself a member of
the holy and universal Church, Paul, Andrew, John,-what were they but
heads of particular communities? And yet all were members under one Head.
And (to bind all together in a short girth of speech) the saints before
the law, the saints under the law, the saints under grace, all these
making up the Lord's Body, were constituted as members of the Church, and
not one of them has wished himself to be called universal. Now let your
Holiness acknowledge to what extent you swell within yourself in desiring
to be called by that name by which no one presumed to be called who was
truly holy.”  (Book IV, Epistle XXVI)

In Gregory’s day, baptism in Rome was by triple
immersion:  “Now we, in immersing thrice, signify the sacraments
of the three days' sepulture; so that, when the infant is a third time
lifted out of the water, the resurrection after a space of three days may
be expressed. Or, if any one should perhaps think that this is done out of
veneration for the supreme Trinity, neither so is there any objection to
immersing the person to be baptized in the water once, since, there being
one substance in three subsistences, it cannot be in any way reprehensible
to immerse the infant in baptism either thrice or once, seeing that by
three immersions the Trinity of persons, and in one the singleness of the
Divinity may be denoted.”  (Book I, Epistle XLIII)

In a letter to Eulogius, the patriarch of
Alexandria, Gregory asserted the existence of three sees of St.
Peter:  “Your most sweet Holiness has spoken much in your letter to
me about the chair of Saint Peter, Prince of the apostles, saying that he
himself now sits on it in the persons of his successors. And indeed I
acknowledge myself to be unworthy, not only in the dignity of such as
preside, but even in the number of such as stand. But I gladly accepted
all that has been said, in that he has spoken to me about Peter's chair
who occupies Peter's chair. And, though special honour to myself in no
wise delights me, yet I greatly rejoiced because you, most holy ones, have
given to yourselves what you have bestowed upon me. For who can be
ignorant that holy Church has been made firm in the solidity of the Prince
of the apostles, who derived his name from the firmness of his mind, so as
to be called Petrus from petra. And to him it is said by the voice of the
Truth, To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matth. xvi.
19). And again it is said to him, And when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren (xxii. 32). And once more, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
Me? Feed my sheep (Joh. xxi. 17). Wherefore though there are many
apostles, yet with regard to the principality itself the See of the
Prince of the apostles alone has grown strong in authority, which in three
places is the See of one. For he himself exalted the See in which he
deigned even to rest and end the present life. He himself adorned the See
to which he sent his disciple as evangelist. He himself stablished the See
in which, though he was to leave it, he sat for seven years. Since then it
is the See of one, and one See, over which by Divine authority three
bishops now preside, whatever good I hear of you, this I impute to
myself.” (Book VII, Epistle XL)  He also refers to Antioch as an
“Apostolic See” (Book V, Epistle XXIX).

In the another letter to Eulogius (Book VIII,
Epistle XXX), in reference to the patriarch of Constantinople’s title, he
added, “in the preface of the epistle which you have addressed to myself
who forbade it, you have thought fit to make use of a proud appellation,
calling me Universal Pope. But I beg your most sweet Holiness to do
this no more, since what is given to another beyond what reason
demands is subtracted from yourself. For as for me, I do not seek to be
prospered by words but by my conduct. Nor do I regard that as an honour
whereby I know that my brethren lose their honour. For my honour is the
honour of the universal Church: my honour is the solid vigour of my
brethren. Then am I truly honoured when the honour due to all and each is
not denied them. For if your Holiness calls me Universal Pope, you deny
that you are yourself what you call me universally. But far be this
from us. Away with words that inflate vanity and wound charity.

Gregory was confused when he heard of Eudoxius the
Heretic, of whom no records were found in Rome.  He also had never
heard of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History.

He seemed to view his role as ultimate corrector of
errors:  “as to his saying that he is subject to the Apostolic See,
if any fault is found in bishops, I know not what bishop is not subject to
it. But when no fault requires it to be otherwise, all according to the
principle of humility are equal.”  (Book IX, Epistle LIX)

But elsewhere, he seemed less liberal and
moderate:  “Inasmuch as it is manifest that the Apostolic See is, by
the ordering of God, set over all Churches” (Book III, Epistle XXX); and
“For as to what they say about the Church of Constantinople, who can
doubt that it is subject to the Apostolic See, as both the most pious
lord the emperor and our brother the bishop of that city continually
acknowledge? Yet, if this or any other Church has anything that is good, I
am prepared in what is good to imitate even my inferiors, while
prohibiting them from things unlawful.”  (Book IX, Epistle
XII)

Gregory also fixed the beginning of Lent in the
West on Ash-Wednesday, 46 days before Easter.  This gave 40 days of
fasting, by leaving out the Sundays.  A period of fasting prior to
Easter is an ancient custom.  Irenaeus (~ 202) mentioned various
lengths of fast, 1 day, 40 hours, 2 days or more.  Tertullian, the
historians Sozomen (3 week fast) and Socrates (6 week fast) also mention
it.  Also, Nicaea, canon 5.

591 Pope Gregory I criticized the bishops of Arles
and Marseilles for allowing the forced baptism of Jews in Provence.

591 End of a war between the Roman Empire and Persia.

595 A Roman Benedictine monk named Augustine
was chosen by Gregory the Great to be the apostle to the
English.  Arrived in England in 597.

On diversity in the mass, Gregory wrote to
Augustine:  “But it pleases me, that if you have found anything,
either in the Roman, or the Gallican, or any other church, which may be
more acceptable to Almighty God, you carefully make choice of the same,
and sedulously teach the church of the English, which as yet is new in the
faith, whatsoever you can gather from the several churches.”

In this year, Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome,
forbade deacons to act as chief singer at the mass.  Gregory founded
two new institutions (orphanotrophia) to train the required
singers.

596 The emperor Maurice recaptured Singidunum from the Avars.

597 St. Columba of Iona died on June 9 of
this year.

597 About 10,000 Englishmen were baptized at
Christmas.  This from a letter from Gregory the Great, bishop of
Rome, to the pope of Alexandria.

598 Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, wrote to the
bishop of Terracina expressing dismay over the report he had heard that
people in that region were worshipping sacred trees.

599 After a synagogue in Caraglio, northern Italy,
had been desecrated, Pope Gregory I wrote to insist that the Jews be
compensated for their loss.

~600 Cyrius, Catholicos of Georgia, rejected
Armenian Christology and accepted Chalcedon (451).

600 Sometime during the 6th century the scratch
plough was replaced in northern Europe by a plough with a moldboard,
allowing it to cut into thick soil.  The new plough first appeared in
western Europe in the Rhineland and the Siene basin.  This eventually
led to a population rise in northern Europe.  In the early centuries
of Christian history, the population was most dense along the eastern
Mediterranean.

Because of Justinian's conquests earlier in this
century, the Roman Empire in the West still included Sicily, north Africa
to Gibraltar, and part of southeastern Spain.  Thus Constantinople
continued to exert considerable influence in the West.

From around this year until approximately 1200,
there were few literate laymen in the West.  In the East, by
contrast, literate laymen continued to serve as administrators of the
Roman Empire.