A Public Faith: From Constantine To The Medieval World AD 312-600 Vol. 2
Ivor J. Davidson
Number of quotes: 40
Book ID: 10 Page: 16/17
Section: 1A,2B2,3C
The story that Constantine experienced a vision of the cross in the sky prior to battle {3} is in other versions presented as a vision of the pagan Sun-god. This deity was certainly of enduring importance to him. The coins he issued in his early years as emperor included images of Sol Invictus, “the Unconquered Sun,” as well as symbols of various other pagan gods, and the still-extant triumphal arch later erected in Rome to celebrate his victory over Maxentius also depicts Sol Invictus as Constantine’s protector and refers simply to “the Divinity,” unspecified. When in 321 Constantine declared the first day of the week as a public holiday (or at least a day when nonessential labor was discouraged and public institutions such as the law-courts could be open only for the charitable purpose of freeing slaves), his stated reason was not to facilitate Christian worship or practice as such but to respect “the venerable day of the Sun.”If there is any truth in the account of Constantine’s vision of the cross, it is conceivable that he somehow associated a personal guardian deity, the Sun-god, with the God of the Christians.
….
Christian preachers had often connected the notion of Christ as the light of salvation with the nature of the sun as the source of human light, and there had long been popular rumors that Christians were involved in a version of sun-worship because they met together on Sundays. A mosaic from the late-third- or early-fourth-century tomb found under St. Peter’s in Rome expressly depicts Christ as Apollo the Sun-god in his chariot, and Constantine utilized an image of Apollo in a public statue of himself in his new city of Constantinople on the Bosphorus. For Constantine, the amalgamation of the conventional symbolism of his preferred deity with the doctrine of the Christian God may have been quite easy.
….
Did Constantine genuinely become Christian or not? Some interpreters believe he never became a true disciple of Christ but simply chose to exploit the significance of Christianity within the Roman world for his own ends. The consequences of his actions, it is said, were disastrous for the spiritual integrity of the church and rendered its doctrine and practice liable to political pressures and cultural fads in ways that have never been entirely undone, even in the 20-first century.
Quote ID: 127
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 19
Section: 3C
If Constantine became a Christian in 311 or 312, he did not allow it entirely to revolutionize his behavior with regard to traditional religion. His coinage over a number of years continued to depict pagan deities; he retained the pagan high priest’s title of Pontifex Maximus, held by all emperors since Augustus; and he did little if anything to curtail the imperial cult. It appears that he came to deplore animal sacrifices and to favor the appointment of Christian officials who would not perform such rites, but there is no evidence that he discontinued them. As his legislation about Sunday indicated, even his pro-Christian actions could appeal to non-Christian ideas.Pastor John’s note: Good Summary
Quote ID: 128
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 20
Section: 3A4,3A4C,3C
The clergy were exempted from civic duties and from taxation. Bishops were allowed to adjudicate in various civil cases, and it became possible legally to free slaves before the church in the presence of a bishop. For the first time, Christian pastors were appointed as military chaplains. The church was allowed to receive legacies from rich individuals.
Quote ID: 129
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 21
Section: 2E3,3C
Constantine devoted large sums of money to the rebuilding of churches after the ravages of the persecutions, and he financed the copying of the Scriptures in the aftermath of the widespread destruction of sacred texts.
Quote ID: 130
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 23
Section: 2E3,3C
While he had shown tolerance to Christians before and after 313 and had taken a Christian wife, Licinius did not share Constantine’s enthusiasm for wholehearted favoritism towards the churches, and once the two had parted company, Licinius came to regard Christian leaders as partisans of his enemy. He was not mistaken, for Constantine actively sought to enlist Eastern bishops in support of his political cause.Licinius’s anti-Christian measures slowly became intense, and in the end, they provided Constantine with a pretext for a showdown.
….
Constantine had achieved his self-professed mission as one called by God to reunite the empire. All the imperial subjects were called upon to worship the one true God.
The new city would contain no temples but was to have a number of churches, the most splendid of which would be the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Sancta Sophia), adjacent to the imperial palace, symbolizing the essential relationship between the emperor and the church.
Quote ID: 131
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 24
Section: 3A4B,3C
Constantine did not visit Rome after 326,….
The emperor’s last trip to Rome had been filled with unpleasantness, and quarrels within his household had led to the execution of both his son Crispus and his second wife, Fausta. Fausta’s palace on the Lateran was handed over to Silvester, the bishop, to serve as his official residence.{5} Henceforth, the most important man in Rome, it seemed, was the city’s bishop.
Quote ID: 132
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 25
Section: 3C2
Written over a period of many years, the Ecclesiastical History reflects various revisions as political circumstance changed, from the end of persecution in 311 to the defeat of Licinius in 324. It climaxes with the conversion and the reign of Constantine as virtually the fulfillment of the kingdom of God on earth. According to God’s good purpose, the coming together of church and empire represents for Eusebius the definitive convergence of faith and politics in the interests of Christ’s cause.
Quote ID: 133
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 10 Page: 25/26
Section: 3A4,3C,4B
Constantine’s generosity brought its own problems, however. In North Africa the emperor found rival Christian claims for his favors.….
In Constantine’s world, however, differences of this kind were affected by a potent new factor – the prospect of imperial patronage for those who could persuade the civil authorities that theirs was the true position. For centuries Christians had appealed to emperors, but never before had the prospects of success involved the political rewards that were now at stake.
Quote ID: 134
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 29
Section: 3C1
Often Arius is alleged to have held opinions and said things that he probably did not. There is no doubt that his beliefs need to be distinguished from those espoused by many of the people who later came to be called “Arians”; some of the diverse forms of Arianism that unfolded in the course of the fourth century were far removed from the teachings of Arius himself.
Quote ID: 135
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 29/30
Section: 3C1
Christ was indeed known as the “Son of God,” but this, Arius argued, was a title given to him by divine grace and favor. The Son was to be thought of as a unique being produced by God to be the instrument by which the rest of creation was affected. As the only begotten one (John 1:18) his origins lay before time, but he was not coeternal with the Father. He was “the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15), and the Wisdom brought forth as the first of the Lord’s works (Prov. 8:22-36), and thus exalted over all other creatures. He might even be said to be “divine,” but he remained a creature. He was not God.….
Not only in the East but also in the West, the disputes over Arianism were of enormous importance both for the churches and for the Roman Empire itself.
Quote ID: 136
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 31
Section: 3C1
Formally excommunicated, Arius and a group of supporters, including six presbyters, six deacons, and two bishops from Libya, were obligated to leave their churches. However, like his bishop, Arius continued to be in correspondence with a wide range of other churchmen, and his backers grew increasingly numerous, not only in Nicomedia but also in Palestine and Syria. His most powerful ecclesiastical advocate proved to be the bishop of Caesarea, Eusebius, who got himself into serious trouble for his efforts to champion Arius’s position.
Quote ID: 137
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 32
Section: 3C2
The Council of Nicaea was duly convened on 20 May 325. It assembled not on church property but in an imperial building, and Constantine himself chaired the opening session. It was the largest gathering of churchmen called up to that time. The total number of bishops present was probably around 220, all of them transported, housed, and fed at public expense in accordance with Constantine’s policy of beneficence toward the clergy.
Quote ID: 138
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 10 Page: 34
Section: 3C2
The Creed of NicaeaIn the end, the following definition was proposed:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Only-begotten, that is, from the substance (ousia) of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance (homoousios) with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us human beings and for our salvation came down and was incarnate, was made human, suffered, and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and is coming to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit.
After these clauses, the following statements were added:
And those who say, “There was when he was not, “and “Before his generation he was not,” and “He came to be from nothing,” or those who pretend that the Son of God is of other reality (hypostasis) or substance (ousia), the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.
Quote ID: 139
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 34
Section: 3C2
The wording of the creed that is generally known as the “Nicene Creed” today does not in fact derive from this council but from a formula endorsed by another gathering later on, the Council of Constantinople in 381 (see pp. 95-98). Scholars often designate the 325 creed “N” and the 381 creed “C” in order to clarify the distinction.
Quote ID: 140
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 35
Section: 3C2,4A
Homoousios was, however, a word with a difficult history. For a start, it was not biblical, which meant that the council was proposing to talk about the nature of the Godhead in terms that were philosophical or conceptual rather than in language drawn directly from the Scriptures.
Quote ID: 141
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 36
Section: 3C1
In addition to the creed, Nicaea bequeathed some other important legacies to the churches. Twenty “canons” or rules were issued, dealing with a number of practical and organizational matters.
Quote ID: 142
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 36/37
Section: 3A1,3C1
Most crucially, the canons of Nicaea enshrined the principle that certain churches had a right to exercise authority over certain others. Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome were recognized as having rights respectively over the entire provincial territories of Egypt and Libya, Syria, and southern Italy. Their bishops were deemed to have specific duties as “metropolitans”, or leaders of an entire province rather than just a local diocese. They were to hold jurisdiction over other bishops within their provinces and have the right of veto over episcopal candidates in these regions.
Quote ID: 143
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 39
Section: 3C2
In Egypt, Alexander ignored the order to readmit Arius to communion, and when Alexander died in April 328 the request remained unanswered. His successor, a young man by the name of Athanasius, was equally determined not to comply.
Quote ID: 144
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 39
Section: 3C2
Athanasius is one of the most significant figures in Christian history.
Quote ID: 145
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 39
Section: 3C2
His shortcomings are difficult to deny, but he was without question a man of outstanding gifts, and his influence as a theologian was enormous, as we shall see further in the next chapter.
Quote ID: 146
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 40
Section: 3C1
The opposition was orchestrated from the start by former Melitian clerics in particular, who refused to accept Athanasius and elected their own candidate as bishop in his stead.
Quote ID: 147
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 40
Section: 3A2A
It is entirely probable that Athanasius indeed did not hesitate to use rough treatment, including beatings and imprisonment, to bring dissidents into line or to curtail their power to get in his way. Such tactics were certainly deployed by later bishops of Alexandria, and there is good evidence to suggest that they took their cue from Athanasius’s example.
Quote ID: 148
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 42
Section: 3C2
In the spring of the following year, Constantine fell ill. Knowing that his time was short, he at last received Christian baptism, clad as a catechumen, at the hands of Eusebius of Nicomedia.Pastor John notes: Eusebius of Nicomedia was a strong supporter of Arius.
Quote ID: 149
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 46
Section: 3C,4B
STOPPED HERE GOING THROUGH CONSTANTINE 7/25/23In the world after Constantine, the manner in which these questions were dealt with could no longer take the forms that might have been assumed in previous ages. A new age of high-profile theological politics had begun.
Quote ID: 150
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 47
Section: 3C
Constantine intended his empire to be divided between his dynastic heirs. As well as his three sons—Constantine II, Constantius, and Constans—there were also two nephews, but after his death these nephews and all other potential bidders for power were swiftly removed in a bloody military purge, leaving control entirely with the sons.
Quote ID: 151
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 49
Section: 3C2
On Athanasius’s return to Alexandria in November, he found significant local hostility. As one who had been condemned by an official council in 335, he was deemed to have forfeited the right to his see, and a rival bishop, Gregory, was shortly installed in his stead. After a brief period in hiding, Athanasius was forced to flee. Constantius was disinclined to listen to his pleas, for his doctrinal alignment was already clear, and it was not in Athanasius’s favor; he was in the process of backing the transference of Eusebius of Nicomedia to become his new bishop in Constantinople.
Quote ID: 152
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 54
Section: 3C2
Constantius’s main object in ecclesiastical affairs was to achieve unity, and he was willing to adopt whatever means were necessary to unite the clergy of both East and West around a shared confessional position.
Quote ID: 153
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 10 Page: 54
Section: 3C2
Closely encouraged by Valens and others, Constantius endeavored to persuade the Latin bishops that their loyalties were misplaced and that wisdom dictated they should subscribe to a more flexible understanding of Christ’s status. If necessary, the emperor was prepared to bribe bishops to induce them to fall into line or to remove them and send them into exile if they refused to comply.
Quote ID: 154
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 10 Page: 55
Section: 3C2
A number of bishops resisted Constantius’s demands, and opposition came to a head at Milan when the dissidents were summoned before the emperor and confronted with an ultimatum to condemn Athanasius or face removal.….
Several of them would later go on to join Athanasius in lambasting Constantius as a tyrant and even as the Antichrist himself for his opposition to the true faith.
From Wikipedia: In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum. Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire (capital Nicomedia) and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one.
Quote ID: 155
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 10 Page: 55/56
Section: 3C2
The most capable theologian among these exiled leaders was Hilary, who had become bishop of Poitiers around 350.….
As a bishop, he had early on revealed his allegiance to Nicaea and had several relations with other Gaulish bishops who had succumbed to political pressure and acquiesced in the condemnation of Athanasius. In 356 he was implicated in a political revolt led by a Frankish soldier and was condemned and sent into exile in Phrygia, where he spent the next four years.
….
One of a number of works Hilary wrote in exile {4} was a twelve-book treatise, On the Trinity, which presents an elaborate defense of the divine nature of God the Son.
Quote ID: 156
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 56
Section: 3C2
For all the efforts of Hilary and others, the flexible theology favored by Constantius continued to spread, not only within the Roman Empire but beyond as Christianity was taken to other constituencies.
Quote ID: 157
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 56
Section: 3C2
Ulfila (ca. 311-383) was brought up among the Goths but was in Constantinople in the late 330s or very early 340s. There he was consecrated by Eusebius, the former bishop of Nicomedia who was by then head of the church in Constantinople, to go as bishop to the Goths.
Quote ID: 158
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 57
Section: 3C2
The “apostle to the Goths” met with considerable success, and he attracted many converts. One of his greatest achievements was the translation of the Greek Scriptures into the Gothic language for the first time. This was a considerable work of scholarship, for in order to do the job Ulfila had to invent an alphabet, made up of a combination of Greek letters and runes.….
…in Ulfila’s time it looked as if a non-Athanasian perspective was spreading very successfully in the West, both within and outside Rome’s borders.
Quote ID: 159
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 10 Page: 200
Section: 3D1
Cyril had been bishop in Alexandria since 412, when he had succeeded his uncle, Theophilus. Like Theophilus, he had always nursed an instinctive resentment of the see of Constantinople, which he regarded as an upstart ecclesiastical establishment, dating only from the fourth century and not from an apostolic foundation, as Alexandria itself claimed to be.
Quote ID: 161
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 10 Page: 200/201
Section: 3D1
His incitement of intolerance had reached its darkest hour in 415 when the distinguished Neoplatonist teacher Hypatia was set upon and murdered by a Christian mob, with apparently no attempted intervention on the part of the bishop. Her death was heard of with horror in Constantinople, and the news naturally did little to quell fears about Cyril’s tactics.
Quote ID: 162
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 10 Page: 201
Section: 3D1
Toward the end of 428, a group of four Alexandrian citizens complained to the emperor Theodosius II that they had been mistreated by Cyril. The emperor referred the matter to his local bishop, Nestorius. This inevitably provoked Cyril’s ire. Cyril refused to accept the right of Constantinople to sit in judgment on his conduct, and he launched into an attack on Nestorius on the basis of what he had heard about his doctrinal views. Cyril was a very capable theologian and biblical expositor, but he was also a thoroughly unscrupulous propagandist, and he exploited every opportunity to besmirch Nestorius.
Quote ID: 163
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 10 Page: 202
Section: 3D1
Early in 430 Cyril wrote another letter to Nestorius. Its argument became one of the most significant documents in the Christology of the fifth-century church. Cyril claimed, with some pertinence, that the term Theotokos was a logical correlate of Mary’s status as the human mother of the one who, according to the Nicene faith, was on earth “the Word of God, begotten of the substance of God the Father.” If Nestorius was not prepared to recognize that, surely he was calling into question the credal affirmation of the divinity of the incarnate Son.
Quote ID: 164
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 10 Page: 203
Section: 3D1
Cyril continued to foment opposition to Nestorius. He wrote letters to prominent members of the imperial court in Constantinople complaining in thinly veiled terms about Nestorius’s beliefs, and he sought to pay on the tensions that existed between Theodosius’s elder sister, Pulcheria, who disapproved of Nestorius, and his wife, Eudoxia, who favored him.
Quote ID: 165
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 10 Page: 204
Section: 3D1
By the time Nestorius received Cyril’s letter and the papal judgment, Theodosius had decided to summon a council of churchmen to meet at Ephesus at Pentecost the following year, 431, to try to settle the dispute.….
First, the Syrians were delayed in arriving in Ephesus as a result of bad weather.{4} The local bishop, Memnon, was deeply hostile to Nestorius, and he supported the ploy of Cyril to get the council under way in any case, on the pretext that Nestorius himself was present and that things had been delayed already. The emperor’s representative, the military commander Candidian, tried in vain to defer the proceedings, and for his efforts he was accused of favoring Nestorius.
….
Cyril was able to capitalize on these feelings and, further, to spread fear of Nestorius at a popular level by claiming disreputably that Nestorius taught a Christ who was only a specially inspired man.
….
In reality, this was not at all what Nestorius taught, but his resistance to the language of the Theotokos and his insistence on a distinction between the humanity of Christ and the inviolable majesty of God were readily turned into much more sinister claims.
Quote ID: 166
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 10 Page: 205
Section: 3D1
In this climate of overwhelming resentment and distortion of ideas, Nestorius refused to recognize the council’s legitimacy and declined to appear before it. By the time the Syrian bishops arrived, Cyril had engineered the condemnation of Nestorius for contempt of ecclesiastical authority, and word was sent to Celestine that he had been duly excommunicated.….
When emissaries finally arrived from Rome {5}, they sided with Cyril, according to Celestine’s instructions, and gave the sanction of the bishop of Rome to the legitimacy of Nestorius’s condemnation. Cyril’s assembly was reconvened, and now it was officially said to be the third great “ecumenical” council.
Quote ID: 167
Time Periods: 5
End of quotes