Eusebius: as bishop of Dorylaeum, Eusebius attacked christological views that he thought veered too far toward overstressing either One Nature or Two Nature approaches: he thus became a major enemy both of Nestorius in the 430s and of Eutyches in the 440s. The Second Council of Ephesus (449) deposed him, but he took refuge with Pope Leo in Rome. The Council of Chalcedon (451) restored him to favor. Not to be confused with the great church historian of the same name.
Eutyches (380–456): a Constantinople monk who held the senior rank of archimandrite. His Monophysite views provoked a religious struggle within Constantinople in the 440s, which in turn led directly to the Second Council of Ephesus (449).
Flavian: patriarch of Constantinople (446–49), he attempted to discipline the monk Eutyches for his views on Christ’s nature, but the controversy led to Flavian himself facing opposition at the Second Council of Ephesus. At that council, a mob maltreated Flavian so badly that he died shortly afterward.
Galla Placidia (392–450): Roman princess who was abducted by Visigoths when Rome fell in 410. She married the Western Roman emperor Constantius III and bore his son Valentinian III. Galla Placidia was the virtual ruler of the Western empire for many years as the regent for her son. She was a strong supporter of papal and Chalcedonian Christianity.
Gregory Nazianzus (c.330–90): great Christian theologian and church father, one of the so-called Cappadocian Fathers and one of the prime enemies of Arians and of various theologies that detracted from the godhood of the Holy Spirit.
Heraclius (575–641): Roman emperor from 610, he saved the empire from destruction by the Persians and was long remembered in Monophysite history as a severe persecutor.
Hilarius: Roman archdeacon who attended the Second Council of Ephesus (449), where he tried unsuccessfully to curb the illegal proceedings. He reigned as pope (461–68).
Ibas: Syrian theologian who served as bishop of Edessa (435–57). At the First Council of Ephesus, he criticized both Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria. Supporters of Cyril tried to have Ibas’s ideas condemned, and he was tried (448–49). The Council of Chalcedon restored him to office.
Irenaeus: imperial count who tried to maintain order at the First Council of Ephesus (431), his attempts at maintaining fairness led to his being denounced as a supporter of Nestorius. Irenaeus later became bishop of Tyre, where he was himself attacked for alleged Nestorianism.
Jacobus Baradaeus (c.500–578): Monophysite monk whom Bishop John of Ephesus ordained as bishop in 541 with authority over the Monophysite churches of the East. Jacobus became the founder and organizer of a whole alternative Eastern church that became known as Jacobite.
John of Antioch: patriarch of Antioch (429–41), John was the leader among the Eastern bishops in the controversies surrounding Nestorius. John’s late arrival at the First Council of Ephesus (431) was critical in shaping the events of that gathering. He eventually patched up a reconciliation with his archrival Cyril of Alexandria.
John of Ephesus (507–86): one of the most important figures in the Monophysite church in the East, but the Orthodox emperor Justinian also entrusted him with campaigns against paganism. John was a leading historian of church affairs in his time, particularly from a Monophysite point of view.
John Chrysostom (347–407): born in Antioch and studied under Diodore of Tarsus. In 398, he became archbishop of Constantinople, but a feud with Theophilus of Alexandria and the empress Aelia Eudoxia led to his being deposed and banished. John is famous as one of the greatest Christian preachers.
Justa Grata Honoria: Roman princess, sister of the Western Roman emperor Valentinian III. While confined in a convent for plotting against her brother, she tried to call on the aid of Attila the Hun, which gave the Huns a legal justification for their assaults on the empire.
Justinian (483–565): nephew of the Roman emperor Justin I, whom he succeeded in office in 527. Justinian reconquered large sections of the old Western empire. Although he favored Orthodox and Chalcedonian Christianity, his wife, Theodora, ensured that some Monophysite clergy enjoyed protection. In 553, Justinian called the Second Council of Constantinople as a means of drawing together Chalcedonians and Monophysites.
Juvenal: bishop of Jerusalem (422–58), Juvenal was heavily engaged in most of the ecclesiastical wars of his time, his main motive being to establish the patriarchal authority of his see of Jerusalem. He supported Dioscuros of Alexandria at the Second Council of Ephesus in 449 and opposed him at Chalcedon in 451.
Leo I (401–74): born in Thrace and ruled as Eastern Roman emperor from 457 to 474.
Marcian (396–457): a prominent Roman soldier who became Eastern Roman emperor in 450 and married the princess Pulcheria. Marcian and Pulcheria called the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and enforced its decisions.
Maximus the Confessor (c.580–662): theologian and mystic who opposed the Roman Empire’s policy of insisting that Christ had only One Will: critics called this view the Monothelete heresy. His opposition led to his trial and condemnation. He was tortured and mutilated, and died in exile.
Memnon of Ephesus: bishop of Ephesus at the time of the great council held in that city in 431. Memnon cooperated closely with Cyril of Alexandria against Nestorius.
Nestorius (386–c.451): born in Syria and trained in Antioch, Nestorius became archbishop of Constantinople in 428, but his views attracted much opposition. Following the First Council of Ephesus (431), he was deposed and exiled.
Peter the Fuller: patriarch of Antioch (471–88), Peter was a strong Monophysite, who did much to spread those views in Syria.
Peter the Iberian (411–91): born in Georgia, Peter was a celebrated monk and a leader in the Monophysite cause. He helped organize the Monophysite church in Palestine.
Peter Mongus, the Stammerer: deacon to Timothy Aelurus, patriarch of Alexandria, Peter became patriarch himself in 477 and was a leader in the Monophysite cause until his death in 490.
Proclus: an associate of John Chrysostom, Proclus became bishop of Cyzicus. He was passed over as archbishop of Constantinople, and when Nestorius took the post in 428, Proclus attacked him for his views on the Virgin Mary. Proclus preached influential sermons and homilies on the Virgin and the Incarnation. He was archbishop of Constantinople from 434 to 446.
Proterius: chosen to replace Dioscuros as patriarch of Alexandria after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he was murdered by an insurgent Alexandrian mob in 457.
Pulcheria (399–453): daughter of the Roman emperor Arcadius and sister of Theodosius II, she was probably the most powerful person within the Eastern Roman Empire for some decades. She was a critical force in shaping church orthodoxy. In 450 she married Marcian, who became emperor, and together they called and supported the Council of Chalcedon.
Severus of Antioch (465-c.540): monk and organizer of Monophysite churches. Severus was bishop of Antioch from 512 to 518 but was deposed when the imperial regime changed. He continued to be the main spiritual force behind the Monophysite movement throughout Egypt and the East.
Shenoute (died 466): abbot of Egypt’s great White Monastery, in fact a vast monastic complex. Like the patriarch Cyril, Shenoute held the One Nature teachings of the Coptic church.
Theodora (c.500–548): wife of the emperor Justinian and a supporter of the Monophysite cause in the church and the empire.
Theodore of Mopsuestia (c.350–428): born in Antioch, where he was associated with John Chrysostom and Diodore. In 392, he became bishop of Mopsuestia. Theodore wrote widely and daringly on theological matters, although the mainstream church later condemned some of his ideas as heretical.
Theodoret of Cyrrhus (393–457): born at Antioch and became bishop of Cyrrhus in 423. He became a leading activist in the debates surrounding Nestorius and was a principal adviser to the bishops of Antioch in their conflicts with Alexandria. The second Council of Ephesus (449) condemned and excommunicated him, but he was restored by the Council of Chalcedon (451). Theodoret was also a significant historical source in his own ri
ght.
Theodosius I (347–95): born in Spain, emperor of both Eastern and Western Roman Empires from 379 to 395. He called the First Council of Constantinople in 381.
Theodosius II (401–50): Eastern Roman emperor from 408 through 450. He was strongly influenced through much of his reign by his sister Pulcheria. Theodosius was responsible for calling both the First and Second Councils of Ephesus.
Theodosius of Alexandria: patriarch of Alexandria from 535 to 567 and a Monophysite leader. In 536, the Orthodox/Chalcedonian church ceased to recognize his authority, beginning a formal schism in Alexandria that lasted for centuries.
Theophilus of Alexandria: bishop of Alexandria (385–412). He suppressed pagan temples in Alexandria. He engaged in a political feud with John Chrysostom, in which John was deposed from his see of Constantinople.
Timothy Aelurus: patriarch of Alexandria (454–77), although he spent much of that time in exile or in hiding from imperial authorities. He was a Monophysite and a deadly enemy of the Chalcedonian cause.
Timothy Salofakiolos: in 460, the emperor chose Timothy as patriarch of Alexandria in the Chalcedonian cause. The local Monophysites opposed him so strongly that his power seemed shaky, giving him his nickname of “Wobbly Cap.” He was deposed in 475 but returned to office from 477 to 481.
Valentinian III (419–55): Western Roman emperor (425–55).
Zeno (425–91): Eastern Roman emperor from 474. He issued the Henoticon in 482, which was an unsuccessful attempt to end debate between One Nature and Two Nature believers.
Notes
INTRODUCTION: WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
1. Matt. 16:13–15.
2. Frances M. Young, “Monotheism and Christology,” in Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young, eds., The Cambridge History of Christianity: Origins to Constantine (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006), 452–69; Brian E. Daley, “Christ and Christologies,” in Susan Ashbrook Harvey and David Hunter, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008), 886–905.
3. “I and the Father are one” is from John 10:29–30. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” is from John 14:8–9.
4. “You are from beneath” is John 8:23. “Before Abraham was” is John 8:58.
5. “The Father is greater than I” is from John 14:28. “No man knows the hour” is from Mark 13:32.
6. John 1:1–14: “The Word was made flesh” is John 1:14.
7. Col. 2:9.
8. John 11:31–36: “Jesus wept” is John 11:35.
9. For the “blood of God” see Ignatius, Ephesians 1.1, in Bart Ehrman, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2003), 1:219; Allen Brent, Ignatius of Antioch (London: T & T Clark, 2007).
10. Alois Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, vol. 1, From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon (451), rev. ed., trans. John Bowden (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1975).
11. Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss, eds., Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition, 4 vols. (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2003); Richard Price and Mary Whitby, eds., Chalcedon in Context (Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press, 2009).
12. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), 5:235.
13. Witold Witakowski, trans., The Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre (Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press, 1996), 35–36.
14. Quoted from R. Payne Smith, ed., The Third Part of the Ecclesiastical History of John Bishop of Ephesus (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1860), 7–8.
CHAPTER ONE: THE HEART OF THE MATTER
1. Richard Price and Michael Gaddis, eds., The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon (Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press, 2007), 2:156 for “Slaughter him!” For the “Gangster Synod,” see William Bright, The Age of the Fathers (London: Longmans, Green, 1903), 2:479–94; John Chapman, “Robber Council of Ephesus,” Catholic Encyclopedia (1909), vol. 5, at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05495a.htm.
2. W. H. C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1972); W. H. C. Frend. The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984).
3. For long-term religious and cultural trends in this era, see Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, rev. ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003). Gerald O’Collins, Christology (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995). I have throughout this book used Henry Chadwick, The Church in Ancient Society (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001).
4. Thomas R. Lindlof, Hollywood Under Siege (Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2008).
5. Averil Cameron, “The Cult of the Virgin in Late Antiquity,” in R. N. Swanson, ed., The Church and Mary (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2004), 1–21; Miri Rubin, Mother of God (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2009).
6. Stephen W. Need, Truly Divine and Truly Human (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson 2008).
7. Pauline Allen, “The Definition and Enforcement of Orthodoxy,” in Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins, and Michael Whitby, eds., The Cambridge Ancient History: Late Antiquity and Successors A.D. 425–600 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000), 811–34; Mark Edwards, “Synods and Councils,” in Augustine Casiday and Frederick W. Norris, eds., The Cambridge History of Christianity: Constantine to c.600 (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007), 367–85; and Karl-Heinz Uthemann, “History of Christology to the Seventh Century,” in the same volume, 460–500.
8. Grillmeier, Apostolic Age to Chalcedon, 520–42; Robert Victor Sellers, The Council of Chalcedon (London: S.P.C.K., 1953); Price and Gaddis, eds., Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, 1:1–75. As late as 1951, the Catholic Church still felt the council important enough to celebrate its 1500th anniversary: Alois Grillmeier, ed., Das Konzil von Chalkedon, 3 vols. (Würzburg, Germany: Echter-Verl, 1951).
9. J. N. D. Kelly, The Athanasian Creed (New York: Harper and Row, 1964).
10. The quotes are from Leo the Great, “Letters and Sermons,” in Philip Schaff and H. Wace, eds. A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895), series 2, vol. 12, 39–43; p. 41 for Lazarus; Alois Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, vol. 2, From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604) (London: Mowbray, 1996); Bernard Green, The Soteriology of Leo the Great (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008).
11. “Their blindness leads them” is from Leo the Great, “Letters and Sermons,” in Schaff and Wace, Fathers of the Christian Church, 58, altered.
12. “If anyone has put his trust in Christ” is quoted from J. Stevenson, Creeds, Councils and Controversies (London: S.P.C.K., 1966), 98. “We should not now be able to overcome” is from Leo the Great, “Letters and Sermons,” in Schaff and Wace, Fathers of the Christian Church, 39. Donald Fairbairn, Grace and Christology in the Early Church (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003).
13. Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006).
14. Frend, Rise of Christianity.
15. Paul B. Clayton, The Christology of Theodoret of Cyrus (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2007). In the modern world, I am thinking of the controversy surrounding Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino, whose christological views encountered such ferocious criticism from the Vatican. See for instance his Christology at the Crossroads (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978).
16. Brown, Rise of Western Christendom, 113–22. Jaroslav Pelikan, Jesus through the Centuries (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1999).
17. Clayton, Christology of Theodoret of Cyrus.
18. Elizabeth S. Bolman, ed., Monastic Visions (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2002); Robert S. Nelson and Kristen M. Collins, eds., Holy Image, Hallowed Ground (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006). For Christ as infant, see Evagrius, “History of the Church,” in Edward Walford, ed., A History of the Church (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), 258; Nestorius, The Bazaar of Heracleides, ed., G. R. Driver and Leonard Hodgson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1925), 137–38.
19.
Euan Cameron, Interpreting Christian History (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
20. Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100–400 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1986), 93.
21. Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008).
22. Eugène Hyvernat, “Coptic Persecutions,” Catholic Encyclopedia (1911), vol. 11, at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11707a.htm. Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring, eds., The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986); Stephen J. Davis, The Early Coptic Papacy (Cairo: American Univ. in Cairo Press, 2005); Roger S. Bagnall, ed., Egypt in the Byzantine World, 300–700 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007); James E. Goehring and Janet A. Timbie, eds., The World of Early Egyptian Christianity (Washington, DC: Catholic Univ. of America Press, 2007).
23. Frend, Rise of the Monophysite Movement; Brown, Rise of Western Christendom.
24. Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005); Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome (London: Allen Lane, 2009); Julia M. H. Smith, Europe after Rome (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005).
25. Brown, Rise of Western Christendom. Leslie Webster and Michelle Brown, eds., The Transformation of the Roman World A.D. 400–900 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1997).
26. Jenkins, Lost History of Christianity.
27. Fergus Millar, A Greek Roman Empire (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2006); Henry Chadwick, East and West (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003).
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