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 Seventh Century

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Index

601 Augustine became first
Archbishop of Canterbury.

601 During this century, the use of breathing and
accent marks in Greek manuscripts began to be general.

Frankish names were rare for bishops in Gaul before
the end of the sixth century.  During the seventh, they became
increasingly common as Frankish leaders exerted control over the
episcopate.

602 Phokas (602-610) Roman emperor.

602 Pope Gregory the Great wrote to the populace of
Rome to prohibit the observance of Saturday as a sabbath, “following the
perfidy of the Jews.”

603 Columbanus charged by a synod of Frankish
bishops with the “error” of keeping Easter according to Celtic
usage.

604+ Due to Constantinople’s inability to defend
Thessalonike, Slavs began settling nearby from about this year.

607 In an effort to improve relations with Rome,
the emperor Phokas bestowed the title “Universal Bishop” upon Boniface III
(607), bishop of Rome.

608 Boniface IV (608-15), bishop of Rome, requested
imperial permission to convert the Pantheon, a pagan temple in
Rome, into a church, St. Maria Rotunda or ad Martyrs, dedicated in
609.  The Pantheon had been built by the emperor Hadrian between 118
and 128 A.D.

609 Patriarch Anastasios II of Antioch was
lynched by Jews from that city.  The incident was due to
Phokas’ attempt to convert the Jews to Christianity and Jewish support for
the Persian invaders (see 611 below).

610Herakleios (610-41) (Heraclius) became Byzantine emperor.
Until Herakleios’ time, Latin was used in government administration and in
the army in the Byzantine empire.  Herakleios ended this
anachronistic use of Latin, replacing it with Greek.

Sergios I was named patriarch of
Constantinople (610-638).  He assisted Herakleios’ campaigns of
622-28 with donations from the Church treasury, and by acting as regent
while Herakleios was in the field.  (See also 619 below.)

610 Columbanus, removed from his monastery
in Luxovium by conspiring enemies in the court of Theodoric II, travelled
to Switzerland and preached to the Alemanni.  About this time,
Columbanus criticized both Vigilius and Boniface IV, the contemporary
bishop of Rome, for supporting heretics by subscribing to the rulings of
the Fifth Ecumenical Council.

611 On 20 April, Constantinople was struck by an
earthquake.

611 The Persians captured Antioch.

612/14 Columbanus founded a monastery at
Bobbio.  Columbanus’s followers, along with Celtic monks, built
monasteries and engaged in missionary activities in northern Europe during
this era.

612 Herakleios’s wife, the empress Fabia-Eudokia,
died of epilepsy.  She left two children - her son became Constantine
III, who ruled briefly in 641.  Herakleios married his neice,
Martina, over the protests of patriarch Sergios.

613 Aethelfrith of Northumbria won a battle at
Chester, cutting Wales off from the Britons to the north.  By this
time, the invaders have conquered 2/3 to 3/4 of the island.

614 The Persians under King Chosroes II invested
Jerusalem on April 15.  On May 5, the Persians forced their way
within the walls, with the help of Jews.  With their churches and
houses in flames around them, the Christians were indiscriminately
massacred, some by the Persian soldiers but many more by Jews.
Sixty thousand perished and thirty thousand more were sold into
slavery.  The Persians carried off the True
Cross.

Of the churches in Palestine, only the Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem was spared.  The apparent reason was the
mosaic over the door, depicting the Wise Men from the East in Persian
costume.

616 (619?) The Persians captured Egypt.

616 Thomas of Harkel translated the Bible into
Syriac.  His is the only complete New Testament in Syriac.
Harkel employed critical signs in his text to indicate variant Greek
readings.  This translation is about one century later than the
Philoxeniana (see 507/8 above), two centuries later than the Peshitta (see
400), and three later than Vetus Syra (see 300).

617 The Persians captured Chalcedon.  The
Persian campaigns in the period 614-19 contributed to the decline of
self-governing cities and the emergence of a more rural economy in Asia
Minor.

617 Donnan of Eigg murdered, along with his
monks.

619 King Sisebut of Visigothic Spain wrote to
Adaloald, king of the Lombards, encouraging the latter to abandon
Arianism.  Sisebut extolled the benefits that had accrued to the
Visigothic kingdom since it had accepted Orthodoxy.

619 The provincial council of Seville was
scandalized by the teaching of a certain bishop Gregory, a Syrian, and an
advocate of the akephaloi - clerics with no acknowledged
head.

619 During an Avar raid on the outskirts of
Constantinople, Sergios had church plate melted.  The resulting coin
was used to buy peace from Chagan, the Avar chieftan.  Possibly
during this raid, Sergios had the relic of the Virgin’s robe temporarily
transferred from Blachernai, outside the city walls, to Hagia
Sophia.  Later, it was returned with vigils and procession.
After the fall of Egypt, the shortage of bread forced the Roman government
to halt free bread distributions, and prices were fixed at three folleis
per loaf.  John “the Earthquake,” an official in charge of
distribution, attempted to charge eight folleis per loaf.  Sergios
himself had the city prefect arrest John and resume distribution at the
legal price.

620+ The Visigoths succeeded in
conquering the Roman province in Spain.

622-681 The Monothelete controversy

622 The emperor Herakleios, while on a visit to
Armenia, and in order to shore up support among the Monophysites in Syria
and Egypt, suggested that the divine and human natures in Christ, while
quite distinct in his person, had but one will (thelema) and one
operation (energeia).  Sergios, patriarch of Constantinople,
was a strong supporter of this doctrine of one theandric energy of
Christ.

623 A Frankish merchant named Samo assisted the
Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia in their revolt against their Avar
overlords.  He led them to form a kingdom which stretched from the
upper Elbe to the central Danube.  This rebellion, likely instigated
by Herakleios, weakened the Avars, who were about to move upon
Constantinople.

625Honorius I (625-38), patriarch of Rome, accepted the
doctrine of one theandric energy in Christ.

626 Persians and Avars besieging Constantinople
were completely repulsed by the Roman emperor Herakleios.  About this
time, Maximos (Maximus) Confessor, (580-662) former protosecretary
to Herakleios and later monk and abbot at Chrysopolis, departed
Constantinople.

Maximos was the principle theologian opposed to
the Monothelete heresy.  He was the most sophisticated analyst of
Chalcedon in antiquity.  Maximos taught that the monophysite doctrine
implied a pessimistic view of human nature.  Chalcedon, on the other
hand, safeguarded the autonomy of mankind and granted an independent
status and positive value to the creation.  The Christ who is known
in two natures is able to be a model for our freedom and individuality,
and for a mystical union with God in which man’s separateness as a
creature is respected.

In his time, Maximos stated, the Son, for the West,
was not the cause of the existence of the Holy Spirit, so that in this
sense the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Son.  Centuries later
at the Council of Florence, the West would make the claim that the Father
and Son are both causes.

By about this year, the Balkans, apart from Constantinople,
Thessalonica, and several cities on the Adriatic Coast, had been lost to
Slavic invaders.  In the opinion of some historians, by annihilating
the Latin-speaking inhabitants of Illyricum and imposing a barbarian
barrier between Constantinople and the West, the Slavic invaders of the
late sixth and seventh centuries contributed greatly to the cultural
estrangement between East and West.

At roughly this time, Herakleios invited the Croats, a Slavic tribe
then living in Galicia, Silesia, and Bohemia, to settle in
Illyricum.  They were given the land between the Drava and the
Adriatic for ridding it of Avars.  Similarly, the Serbs were allowed
to move from their homeland north of the Carpathians to a territory east
of the Croats.  The emperor asked the bishop of Rome to send
missionaries to both groups, but it seems this effort had little lasting
success.

627 Herakleios won a decisive victory over the
Persians at Nineveh, shattering the last of their armies.  The
eastern provinces, now largely Monophysite, were reoccupied.

627 Paulinus converted Edwin, King of Northumbria,
who was baptized on Christmas day.  Paulinus became the first bishop
of York.

628 After pausing in Crete, Maximos Confessor
arrived in North Africa.

629 Herakleios ceased using the title Imperator,
employing Basileus instead.  This reflects the shift from Latin to
Greek (see 610 above).

631 Herakleios appointed Kyros, bishop of Phasis in
Colchis, patriarch of Alexandria, with power to act as viceroy
(dioiketes) of Egypt.  Kyros began a ten-year persecution of
the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Christians.  The Coptic patriarch
Benjamin I (622-661) escaped into hiding in the desert, and, in an attempt
to discover Benjamin’s hiding place, Kyros had Benjamin’s brother Mina
tortured, then drowned in the Nile, tied in a sack full of stones.
The division among Christians no doubt aided the Islamic conquest of Egypt
(639-641).

632 Death of Mohammed.

633 On the basis of the doctrine of one theandric
energy in Christ, supported by patriarch Kyros of Alexandria, a statement
of union was signed between Constantinople and a moderate group of
Monophysites, the Theodosians, in Alexandria, in June of this year.
Sophronios, a monk of the monastery of St. Theodosius in Jerusalem,
who had accompanied the Byzantine chronicler John Moschus in his travels,
visited Alexandria and Constantinople to convince the patriarchs to
renounce Monothelitism.  Afterwards, patriarch Sergios became
less enthusiastic in his monoenergism.

633 The Fourth Council of Toledo, meeting in
the church of St. Leocadia, comprised of 62 bishops meeting at the request
of King Sisenand (ruled the Visigoths from 631-36) asserted the statement
of the Athanasian Creed that “Whoever wants to be saved, it is necessary
above all that he hold the Catholic faith.”  This is significant in
the context of the Visigoths’ recent Arianism. Isidore (560-636),
archbishop of Seville from roughly 600, presided over this council,
which also insisted upon toleration for the Jews and took measures to
increase uniformity in the mass in Spain.  In addition, the council
ordered, “Let the priest and the deacon communicate at the altar, the
remaining clergy in the choir, and the laity outside the choir.”
Evidence suggests that the altar was screened from public view in Spain
during this period.

Isidore is best known for his Etymologies,
an early encyclopedia very influential during the Dark and Middle Ages,
which stressed elements of classical education such as the seven liberal
arts.  In Book 7 of that work, Isidore wrote, “The Father alone is
not from anything else, thus He alone is called uncreated; the Son alone
is by His nature from the Father, thus He alone is called created
[sic]; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son,
thus the Spirit alone is constituted by them both.”   Isidore,
though respectful of the papacy, also emphasized the independence of the
Spanish church, and he viewed the Spanish monarchy as an ascendant power
in contrast to the declining Roman Empire, beset as it was by Persians,
Huns and Slavs.  His disregard for Constantinople also comes though
in his refusal to term the bishop of Constantinople a patriarch, in his
minimizing of Justinian’s authority in De viris illustribus, and in
his position that Constantine I was an Arian.  Isidore is even
critical of the Eastern practice of using a silk cloth (rather than linen)
to cover the bread in the eucharist.  Isidore’s influence in later
Western Christianity clearly facilitated the schism of 1054.

Isidore related that King Sisebut of Visigothic
Spain had ordered all Jews in his kingdom to accept baptism.

633/4 Sophronios (634-38) elected patriarch
of Jerusalem.  He sent a synodical letter to Honorius and the Eastern
patriarchs explaining the orthodox belief in the two natures of Christ, as
opposed to Monothelitism, which he viewed as a subtle form of
Monophysitism.  He also composed a Florilegium (anthology) of 600
texts from the Bible and the Greek church fathers in favor of the orthodox
tenet of Dyotheletism (two wills) in Christ.

634 The Saracens swept up the coast of Palestine as
far as Caesarea.  Four thousand Christian, Jewish and Samaritan
peasants were slaughtered.

634 Patriarch Sergios of Constantinople published a
short document, the Psephos (Decision), which forbade the mention
of either one or two volitional principles of activity (energy) in
Christ.  Both Maximos the Confessor and patriarch Sophoronios
accepted this.

635 King Oswald of Northumbria requested the Scots
send him a bishop to convert his people.  Aidan was sent, a
monk of Hii or Iona, and established his episcopal see on the island of
Lindisfarne (Holy Isle).

635 Damascus fell to the Saracens.  The
Monophysites in Syria, persecuted for years by the Roman authorities,
supported the invaders.

636 Reign of Rothari (636-52), king of the
Lombards.  He was the last Lombard king known to be an Arian.

636 Fall of Antioch to the Saracen invaders.
Herakleios withdrew his forces from Syria.

637 Jerusalem fell to the Arab
invaders.  Sophronios negotiated civil and religious liberty for
Christians in exchange for tribute.

638 Herakleios issued his Ekthesis
espousing the Monothelete doctrine (that there is only one will
in Christ) and setting it forth as the official doctrine of the
Church.  The four eastern patriarchs gave their assent.  But the
Ekthesis was vigorously opposed, notably by Maximos the
Confessor.

Pyrrhos became patriarch of Constantinople (638-42,
53/4-?) upon Sergios’ death.  Pyrrhos had been an advocate of
Monothelitism and a close friend of the emperor Herakleios.

639 Thousands died in Palestine of famine and
disease caused by the Saracen invasion, in which villages were destroyed
and fields laid waste.

639 In December, the Saracen general Amr ibn al-Asi
invaded Egypt with between 3500 to 4000 soldiers.

639 John Climacus (579-649) chosen abbot of
the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mt. Sinai.  He wrote The
Ladder of Divine Ascent, a work in 30 chapters which describes the
spiritual ascent toward moral perfection.

640 The Saracens conquered the port of Caesarea in
Palestine.  The caliph Umar ordered a census of Palestine.  All
property (lands, livestock, trees, etc.) were counted in order to
impose a poll tax.  In Iraq, Umar was to increase the tax by a factor
of 3 to 4 over what had been due the Persians.

641 The Arabs conquered Egypt, including
Alexandria.  In September, the Saracen forces of Amr ibn
Al-Asi entered Alexandria, completing their conquest of Egypt.  They
burned the books of the library to heat the public baths.  It
was said that the supply of books ran out after one year.
Nevertheless, the initial years of Muslim rule were favorable for the
Coptic Christians, who were allowed to practice their religion freely, and
could build and repair churches without interference.  The early
jizyah (poll tax) was no more onerous than the Imperial taxes had
been..

The emperor Herakleios died on 11 February, blaming
the Ekthesis on patriarch Sergios.  His eldest son,
Constantine III, died on 25 May of the same year.  There is
speculation that he was killed by his stepmother, Martina.
Constantine III’s son Herakleios became the emperor Constans II
(641-68).  (Constans II was termed Pogonatus, “the bearded,”
due to his luxuriant beard - though all Roman emperors in this period wore
beards.)

John IV (640-42), patriarch of Rome, condemned
Herakleios’ Ekthesis, and the
doctrine of one will in Christ.

642 Patriarch Pyrrhos of Constantinople - an ally
of Martina - replaced by Paul, who opposed her, supporting Constans II in
the succession battle of 641.

642 King Chindaswinth of Spain (642-53) ordered the
death penalty for Christians who worshipped as Jews.

643 The Saracens ransacked Tripoli.

643 Archbishop Sergios of Cyprus wrote to
Theodore I (642-49), patriarch of Rome, asking for his support in opposing
the Monotheletes of Constantinople.  Sergios referred to the pope as
the successor of St. Peter and the rock upon which the Church is
founded.  In a letter written about this time, Maximos Confessor
wrote of “the very holy church of Rome, the apostolic see, which God the
Word Himself and likewise all the holy synods, according to the holy
canons and the sacred definitions, have received, and which owns the power
in all things and for all, over all the saints who are there for the whole
inhabited earth, and likewise the power to unite and to dissolve
...”

645 At a debate in Carthage, arranged by the exarch
Gregory, Maximos Confessor convinced Pyrrhos, former patriarch of
Constantinople, to renounce the Monothelite heresy.  Pyrrhos later
changed his mind and was reinstalled as patriarch of Constantinople in 653
or 654.

646 A synod in Spain limited the retinue of a
bishop to fifty.  This eased the burden on those who were required to
host the bishop and his party.

647 Gregory, exarch of Carthage, proclaimed
independence from Constantinople.  He was supported by the
Chalcedonian populace.  This rebellion ended when the Arabs raided
Carthage from Libya and killed Gregory (649).  Carthage finally fell
to the Arabs in 705.

648 The Roman (Byzantine) emperor Constans
II, to quiet the intense controversy caused by the Monothelete
doctrine,  issued an edict forbidding the subject to be
discussed.  This edict, distributed by the patriarch Paul in
Constans’ name,  is known as the Typos.  A papal
legate in Constantinople, Anastasius, was exiled to Trebizond for refusing
to assent to the edict.

649 Martin I (649-55), patriarch of Rome, in
defiance of imperial policy, condemned the Monothelete doctrine at
the Lateran council in Rome.  The patriarchs Sergios, Pyrrhos, and
Paul of Constantinople were anathematized, along with Kyros of
Alexandria.  A florlegium of 161 extracts from orthodox authors (only
28 of whom wrote in Latin) opposing Monothelitism was compiled.  One
hundred and five western prelates were present at the synod, representing
Sicily, Africa, Sardinia, and Italy, though none were from north of the
Alps or Spain.  A large body of eastern monks attended as well, in
addition to representatives from eastern patriarchs.  Martin had the
council’s findings translated into Greek and sent to the emperor Constans
II, requiring him to repudiate the monothelite heresy.

Maximos Confessor attended this synod.  From
Rome, Maximos wrote of the church there that “she has the keys of the
faith and of the orthodox confession; whoever approaches her humbly, to
him is opened the real and unique piety, but she closes her mouth to any
heretic who speaks against the justice.”

649 King Recceswinth of Spain (649-54) forbade
observance of the Passover, the Old Testament dietary restrictions, and
Jewism marriages.  Jews were forbidden to go to court against
Christians or to give evidence against them in court.

649 The Saracens attacked Cyprus, killing or
enslaving much of the populace.

653Bishop Martin I of Rome and Maximos Confessor were arrested
by order of the emperor Constans II.  Martin was arrested by Theodore
Calliopas, exarch of Ravenna.   Both were banished for treason
in 655, apparently because of their opposition to the Monothelites.
Martin I was exiled to Crimea, where he died on 16 September 655.

653-58 A certain Wilfrid visited Rome as a
pilgrim.  After his return to England, he became abbot of the
monastery in Rippon.  Later, he became bishop of York (664).
Wilfrid’s history demonstrates secular limitation of the bishop of Rome’s
influence in the Church.

655 Naval battle between the Romans and the Arabs
off Phoenikos (modern Finike) in Lycia.  The Roman fleet was
shattered, and Constans II barely escaped.

656 The Caliph Othman was assassinated in Medina
while reading the Koran.  The Arab world was in turmoil for the next
five years, giving the Romans a brief respite.

659 On her deathbed, Gertrude of Nivelles, daughter
of Pepin I of France (the mayor of the palace who died ~ 640), requested
burial in wearing a plain linen shroud.  This ran contrary to the
traditional (pagan) practice of a “furnished” grave.  Her example was
copied.  By the 750s, the practice of furnishing graves against the
needs of the dead in the afterlife had ceased in Francia.

661 By this year, the Franks had replaced all Roman
bishops in Gaul with Frankish bishops (see 601 above).  St. Boniface
described the Franks as:  “voracious laymen, adulterous clergy and
drunkards, who fight in the army fully armed and who with their own hands
kill both Christians and pagans.”

661/2 Maximos Confessor was recalled from exile in
Thrace, tried, and sentenced to mutilation.  His tongue and his right
hand were cut off to prevent his further opposition to the
Monothelites.

Maximos’ most significant theological contribution
is perhaps his interpretation of the works of the Pseudo-Dionysius along
Orthodox lines, emphasizing both Trinitarian theology and diophysite
Christology.  Maximos was a proponent of apophatic approach to the
knowledge of God.  His works take up more space in the
Philokalia (see 1782 below) than do those of any other writer and
are concerned with the process of deification.

At the Council of Florence (1441), the Orthodox
quoted Maximos to indicate in what sense the filioque was
understood in the West in the seventh century.  Maximos wrote,
“the Romans do not affirm that the Son is the cause of the Spirit, for
they know that the cause of the Son and the Spirit is the Father, of one
by birth, and of the other by procession; but only show that the Spirit is
sent through the Son.”  The Orthodox indicated that, if this were
still the Roman position, “then no further discussions are necessary, and
the former union of Churches can take place.”  Unfortunately, the
Western dogma had changed dramatically by that time.

662 On August 13, Maximos Confessor died in
exile in Lazica on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea.

662 The emperor Constans II left Constantinople,
initially intending to establish his court in Rome.

662 Around this year, during the reign of their
king Grimoald (ruled 662-71), the Lombards in the Benevento region were
worshipping the image of a snake; the cult had endured from
antiquity.  St. Baratus had the snake idol melted down into a paten
and chalice.

663 Constans II visited Rome. He stripped the
city’s churches of valuables - taking even roof tiles from St. Maria ad
Martyres.

664 The synod held at Whitby.
Churches in the north of England (who had been under the influence of
Celtic evangelists) agreed to keep Easter on the date established by Rome,
in agreement with churches in the south evangelized from Rome.  The
Celts claimed their practice came from St. John, while the southerners
invoked Peter.  King Oswy (of the Mercians) was convinced by the
argument that Peter held the keys to the kingdom of heaven:  “lest,
when I come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to
open them, he being my adversary who is proved to have the keys.”

Curiously, it appeared the Celts celebrated Easter
according to the agreement made at Nicaea in 325 (on the Sunday after the
fourteenth day of the month nearest the vernal equinox). They were
unaware, however, that since Nicaea Alexandrian astronomers had found an
error in the way the Jews calculated Passover.  The method for
computing Easter had been modified in 525 so the date always fell between
March 22 and April 24, as it does to this day -- on the first Sunday after
the full moon that occurs upon or next after the vernal equinox (March
21).  The appeals to apostolic authority on both sides were thus
erroneous.

664 Wilfrid appointed bishop of York.
He had advocated the Roman position at Whitby earlier the same
year.

664 A plague fell upon Essex.  The king,
Sigehere, and the people apostatized.  Bishop Jaruman of Mercia
restored them to the faith.

666 Constans II granted the request of Archbishop
Maurus of Ravenna, allowing that city to consecrate its bishop without
approval from Rome.

670 The authority of the Athanasian creed
affirmed by a council in Toledo.

672 The Saracens attacked the islands of Cos and
Rhodes, killing or enslaving much of the populace.

673-5  A synod at Saint-Jean-de-Losne
condemned clerical hunting (see 517, 747).

674 Benedict Biscop (~628-689/90),
considered the father of Benedictine monasticism in England, built the
monastery of St. Peter in Wearmouth.  Benedict traveled frequently to
Rome, obtaining instructions in monastic practice and manuscripts,
paintings, and relics for the monastery at Wearmouth and a sister
monastery at Jarrow.  Together, these establishments comprised a
leading center for scholarship and art in Western Europe during this
era.  Biscop was succeeded as abbot of Wearmouth by Coelfrith in
690.

674 The Saracens attacked Crete, killing or enslaving much of the
populace.

678 Constantine IV (668-85) began to search about
for a final resolution on the Monothelite question.  He wrote
suggesting a general council.

Around this year, Agatho, bishop of Rome (678-81),
sent a certain John, first singer of the Schola Cantorum in Rome,
to train students in church music at Wearmouth, England.

678 Because of a squabble between the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Theodore, and King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, Wilfrid was
expelled from his see at York.  He traveled to Rome to appeal to that
city’s bishop.  On the road, Wilfrid was instrumental in the
conversion of many Frisians (living in modern Holland) - aided by the
coincidence of unusually good fishing.

680 The Bulgars, who had crossed the Danube into Dobrudja (between the
Danube and the Black Sea) during the previous decade, defeated the Roman
forces sent out to expel them.  From this point on, the Bulgars
were permanent residents south of the Danube.

680 King Ervig of Spain (680-87) forbade Jews from observing the
Sabbath.

680 By about this time, the Lombards have been
converted to Orthodoxy.

680 In a letter prepared for the Sixth Ecumenical
Council, Pope Agatho interpreted Luke 22.31 as a reference to the
doctrinal purity of the papacy and the unique pastoral duties of
popes.  The passage reads:  “Peter, Peter, behold, Satan hath
desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not.  And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren.”  For Agatho, it was clear that the church
in Rome “has never erred from the path of the apostolic tradition, nor has
she been depraved by yielding to heretical innovations, but ... remains
undefiled unto the end, according to the divine promise” of Luke
22.31.  This is the first known interpretation of that verse in
support of papal claims.  Earlier fathers, such as Chrysostom and
Ambrose, had treated it as a prophecy of Peter’s denial and
repentance.   For them, it had no connection to a supposed
permanent role for him (or his successors).

680 Wilfrid returned to York with a ruling from the
bishop of Rome in his favor.  However, King Ecfrith imprisoned
Wilfrid instead of reinstating him as bishop.  Wilfrid was released
in 681 but exiled from Northumbria.

681Sixth Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople (the Third
Council of Constantinople). Anathematized Honorius, patriarch of
Rome and deposed the patriarch of Antioch, Makarios, for embracing
the Monothelite heresy.

From the statement of faith adopted by the
council:

“ ... believing our Lord Jesus Christ, our
true God, to be one of the Holy Trinity even after the taking of flesh, we
declare that his two natures shine forth in his one hypostatis, in which
he displayed both the wonders and the sufferings through the whole course
of his dispensation, not in phantasm but truly, the difference of nature
being recognized in the same one hypostasis by the fact that each nature
wills and works what is proper to it, in communion with the other.
On this principle we glorify two natural wills and operations combining
with each other for the salvation of the human race.

“... likewise [we] proclaim according to the
teaching of the holy fathers that Christ has two volitions or wills, and
two natural operations without division or change, without partition or
co-mingling.  And the two natural wills are by no means opposed (as
the godless heretics have said); but the human will is compliant, and not
opposing or contrary; as a matter of fact it is even obedient to his
divine and omnipotent will.”

This council was noteworthy for the extreme care
taken to verify the authenticity of documents cited.  This care was
in reaction to the fact that documents pertaining to the Fifth Ecumenical
Council read at the Sixth were found to be forgeries.

Patriarch Makarios of Antioch and six other
Monothelites were given permission to appeal to Rome.  Two of them
were subsequently reunited with the Church.  Makarios and the other
four were imprisoned in monasteries in Rome.

The patriarch of Jerusalem, Theodore, unable to
attend this council, sent St. Andrew of Crete (then Deacon Andrew) to
represent him.  As a boy, Andrew had been unable to speak.  In
church one day, he prayed that God would heal him.  The moment he
received communion, he began to speak, glorifying God.  At the
council, Andrew displayed wisdom and knowledge, and afterwards he became
bishop of Crete.  A poet, Andrew composed the “Great Canon” read
during Lent in Orthodox Churches.

684 The Maronites became an independent
people when the armies of Justinian II were defeated by John Maron (later
patriarch of Antioch from 685-707).

685 The caliph Abd al-Malik (685-705) established
Arabic as the official language of the Umayyad empire.  No other
languages were permitted in government administration.

686 Wilfrid returned to his see at York under King
Ecfrith’s successor Aldfrith.

686-89 Sometime during this period, the Arab
governor of Egypt, Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan, imprisoned the Coptic pope,
Isaac (686-689), for intervening in a dispute between the emperor of
Ethiopia and the king of Nubia (both Christians).  The governor
stripped the churches of crosses, especially those made from gold or
silver.  He also fixed placards to the church gates, stating that
Mohammed was the apostle of Allah, and denying that Jesus was the Son of
God.

Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Marwan was succeeded by his son,
al-Asbagh, who, guided by a Copt named Benjamin, discovered and seized
Coptic treasures.  Al-Asbagh extended the jizyah (poll tax) to monks,
and added a 2000 dinars to the land tax paid by bishops.  A wave of
conversion to Islam occurred during this time of financial
persecution.  (Al-Asbagh is also reported to have spat on an icon of
Mary carried in procession at Helwan.)

686 The archbishop of Toledo, Julian, head of the
church in Spain, composed a work to defend against Jewish efforts to prove
that Jesus had not been the Messiah.  It seems there was a flow of
conversions to Judaism in Spain in spite of the penalties of law (see 642,
649, 680).

687 Sergius I (bishop of Rome, 687-701)
introduced a new form of litany to Rome.  The new litany style had
been developed in Syria and involved invocation of the saints and
devotions to the Lamb of God and the Cross.  Sergius was himself from
Syria.  The Agnus Dei was one of the liturgies Sergius
brought to Rome.  Sergius ordered that the Agnus Dei be sung
by the clergy and people during the mass, at the time of the breaking of
the consecrated host.  “Grant us thy peace” replaced the final “Have
mercy on us” about four hundred years later.

689 Late evidence of delayed baptism:  King
Cadwalla of Wessex was baptized just before his death at age 30 while
traveling to Rome.

690 Willibrord, who had been a monk at
Wilfrid’s monastery in Ripon, asked permission of Sergios I (687-710),
bishop of Rome, to conduct a mission to the continent.  The pope
furnished him with relics as well.  Accompanied by eleven companions,
and protected by Pippin II and Charles Martel, Willibrord established a
monastery at Echternach (about midway between Rheims and Mainz).

~ 690 A certain Rupert established the cathedral
church in Salzburg.  Salzburg and Passau had been Roman forts, and it
is possible that Christianity had survived in those towns.

691/2 Abd al Malik imposed a poll tax on the
Syrians.  According to the chronicle of the Monophysite monk known as
Pseudo-Dionysius, al Malik “issued a strict edict for every individual to
go to his country of origin, his village, where he was to register his
name, that of his father, his vines, his olive trees, his property, his
children and everything he owned.  This was the origin of the poll
tax; this was the origin of all the evils spread out over the
Christians.”

692 A council of 327 (211?) bishops was held in the
trullo or domed room of the Emperor’s palace in Constantinople.
Called by the emperor Justinian II (685-95, 705-11), it is referred to as
the Quinisext council or the Council in Trullo, and viewed
(in the East) as an extension of the 5th and 6th ecumenical
councils.  No canons had been formulated for the entire Church since
Chalcedon (451), so the Quinisext council set about to contemporary
practices.  The 102 canons acted to (a) fix bishops, priests, and
monks to their respective locations of service; (b) support eastern Roman,
rather than Armenian, Jewish, or Latin customs; and (c) to suppress
paganism and superstition.

Canon 1 anathematized to “Origen, and Didymus, and
Evagrios, all of whom reintroduced feigned Greek myths.”

One canon (13) condemned mandatory clerical
celibacy.

Canon 73 commended due veneration (proskunhsin) to the figure of the cross, and that it
not be formed on the floor where it would be trampled.

Canon 82 ordered that the image of Christ in icons
be a human figure, not a lamb as in earlier times, “that we may recall to
our memory his conversation in the flesh, his passion and salutary death,
and his redemption which was wrought for the world.”

Canon 90 forbade kneeling from Vespers on Saturday
until Sunday evening.

Canon 91 equated abortion to murder.

Canon 95 made a distinction between former heretics
who can be received into the Church by chrismation and those who must be
baptized.

The bishops of Rome were hesitant to approve of the
canons promulgated by the Quinisext council.  Bishop Sergius I
of Rome (687-710) refused to sign them when they were delived by the
legates who had attended the council.  In contrast to the events
surrounding Martin I (653 above), when Justinian II ordered the imperial
official Zacharias to arrest Sergius, the armies of Ravenna and Pentapolis
marched to Rome to protect its bishop.  Later, Justinian requested
that John VII (705-7) approve the canons, and it appears that he may
have.  Hadrian I (772-95) approved the canons in a letter to Tenasius
of Constantinople.

692 Wilfrid, bishop of York, fell out with King
Aldfrith, and was exiled again.

694 King Egica of Spain ordered the enslavement of
all Jews and the confiscation of their property.

695 Willibrord appointed archbishop of Utrecht
(north of the Rhine near the North Sea).  He oversaw the construction
of churches and monasteries among the Frisians.  From the monastery
at Echternach, Willibrord sent missionaries eastward, to Hesse, Thuringia,
and Franconia.

698 Carthage fell to the Saracens.

698 The synod of Pavia restored communion
between Istria and Rome, broken during the Fifth Ecumencial Council
(see 548 above).

700 In Rome from around this year, a large fragment
of the True Cross was venerated in the Church of the Holy Cross in
Jerusalem.