With the conversion of Constantine in 312 and his subsequent victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge near Rome, the imperial persecution of Christians came to an end. But the new dispensation brought with it new problems. Christians were guaranteed freedom of religion, Church goods and property were restored, Sunday became a special day, the Church was free to expand its mission work, and there was a rapid growth in church membership. But the new freedoms also allowed the growth of internal dissension and heresies, more complex church structures were demanded to cope with both expansion and dissent, and the new footing for Church-State relations also gave the state more say in church affairs.
The first major doctrinal controversy arose in the debate over the Trinity and the teachings of a Libyan theologian, Arius, who taught that the Son was not co-equal and co-essential with the Father, but merely the chief of his creations, that the two persons were substantially similar rather than of the same substance. In an attempt to settle the dispute, Constantine used his powers as emperor to call and preside over the first of the great Councils of the Church. The Council of Nicaea, attended by 300 or so bishops, agreed on formulas that later gave us the Nicene Creed.
Meanwhile, as the Church was reaching a new understanding with the state and the world, Anthony of Egypt and other leading Christian intellectuals and writers were leaving the cities and towns to live on their own in the desert. The Greek word monos (alone) gave us the words monk and monastery to describe how these hermits lived, and the monastic tradition would become a mainstay of church life and mission for centuries to come.
In the Eastern Empire, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Basil, and Gregory Nazianzus came to be counted as the four Doctors of the Eastern Church or great founding theologians. Athanasius was Bishop of Alexandria, but was forced into exile on a number of occasions by the Arians. Unbowed, he was the biographer of Anthony of Egypt, and so introduced monasticism to the West at a time when the rift between East and West was increasing. For the first time, he listed the contents or canon of the New Testament as we now know it. Two years after his death, his supporters and the Cappadocian Fathers, including Basil and Gregory, eventually triumphed in 381 in the doctrinal debate at the Council of Constantinople. The creed agreed at Constantinople, now known as the Nicene Creed, remains the standard test of orthodox teaching and doctrine.
The first breach between Rome and the four other patriarchal sees in the East came when John Chrysostom (347-407) was deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople in 403. For 11 years, between 404 and 415, there was no communion between Rome and Constantinople - a foretaste of future, deeper divisions in later centuries.
During that time, the Goths sacked Rome in AD 410. With the collapse of the Roman Empire at the start of the fifth century, new foundations were needed if Christianity were to be a world force. Jerome (342-420), who moved to Bethlehem, produced a readable Bible translated into the common language, Latin (hence the Vulgate). In North Africa, Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo, addressed the doubts of a shaken church with his Confessions and The City of God, and provided the West with a theology which could survive the centuries. Jerome and Augustine, along with Ambrose and Gregory, would be counted among the four Latin Doctors of the Church. Later, a rediscovery of Augustine would inspire both the Reformers and the Catholic CounterReformation.
Having dealt with Arianism at Nicaea and Constantinople, the church called another great council at Ephesus in 431, to deal with arguments about the Virgin Mary and her role as Theotokos or "Bearer of God". The deposed Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, was condemned as a heretic. In the face of efforts by the Emperor Theodosius to reverse the decisions, the monks of Constantinople marched through the streets to support the bishops of the council, and the decision was endorsed in Rome by the Pope.
Today, the arguments of the four great councils may appear to be obscure philosophy, but they identified the fundamental issues central to the Christian faith: Jesus Christ is not merely a super creature of the last great prophet sent by God, but in his deity is the foundation of all true Christian faith and he is the one, unique revelation of God.
Amid the gloom prevailing in the middle of the fifth century, Pope Leo the Great (440-461) assumed the imperial title of Pontifex Maximus (Supreme Priest), declared his words to be the word of Peter, influenced the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and set to putting the Church of Rome on a new footing. In 452, he persuaded Attila the Hun to turn back from Rome, but three years later the city was sacked by the Vandals.
Leo the Great was a contemporary of Patrick, who is said to have arrived in Ireland as a missionary bishop in AD 431 and continued his missionary work until his death circa 460. Patrick and the early Celtic church built on the pre-Patrician church in Ireland, and then, beginning with the foundation of a monastery by Columcille (Columba) in Iona in 563, the first Celtic missionaries brought new life first to Scotland and a dwindling church left behind in Britain after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and then into northern Europe. The Celtic monks were breathing new life into the Church in northern Europe, while in southern Europe Benedict was drawing up a Rule that would reform monastic rule throughout the West.
In the East, the Emperor Justinian (527565) had re-established Byzantium's territorial control, combated a resurgent Arianism followed by the barbarian kings, and in the space of six years built the great church of Haghia Sophia, the supreme expression of the Byzantine genius. In the West, a recovering papacy under Gregory the Great sent Augustine as first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597. But Christianity in the East and West was ill-prepared for the newest challenge about to face it: the rise of Islam. Muhammad, who was born in 570, established his new system in Mecca in 622. The new religion would reflect many of the conflicts Christianity had tried to suppress, including Arianism and the arguments over images and icons.
Patrick Comerford is an Irish Times journalist and a writer on theology and church history. Contact: theology@ireland.com
