9. DONATISM AND ARIANISM

Heresy and religious controversies were an important characteristic of Byzantine civilization. Rather than revealing a culture that was conservative and moribund, the controversies show a people who cared passionately about theological truth and who exercised all of the intellectual resources at their disposal in this concern. People today frequently find these controversies difficult to understand; it is quite impressive to note that the Byzantines were able to carry out an extremely intelligent dialogue on such difficult topics.

St. Apollinaris, from S. Apollinaris in Classe, Ravenna

A. The Concept of Heresy

1. Christianity, as a religion that believed in the absolute truth of its teachings, could not tolerate dissent.

a. The word "heresy" means a "choice" or an "opinion," but it came to mean an "incorrect" theological belief.

b. Historians distinguish between heresy and orthodoxy, but both sides in a controversy claimed that they were orthodox (meaning "true belief").

c. Who was heretical and who orthodox is determined by who "won" the controversy.

2. Many elements within Christianity were not fully developed or clear, and controversy naturally developed.

a. Associated with this were the rival claims of the bishops of many of the larger cities of the Empire.

b. Some bishops sought to "interfere" into the territories of other bishops, and such claims and counter-claims often took theological form, as one bishop accused another of heresy.

c. Through all this it is less than helpful to make a distinction between "orthodoxy" and "catholicism": everyone agreed that there was one church, they just disagreed about who was right and who was wrong.

d. The bishop of Rome (the Pope) always claimed special rights and privileges and there is no doubt that bishops' power depended largely on the importance of their individual cities.  Nonetheless, it is also clear that in the fourth century very few people regarded the bishop of Rome as anything more than the ruler of the most prestigious city in the Empire.

3. Heresy had existed within Christianity from the earliest time, but with the involvement of the Roman state, the issue took on a new importance.

a. To a certain degree, disagreements arose because different theologians had been brought up on different philosophical systems (i.e., the philosophical traditions of the Greeks).

b. Different "schools" of Christian theology emerged, stressing different aspects, or beginning with different principles.

c. Each side in a controversy thought that it was right and its opponents were condemned to Hell.

d. The emperor was brought in as a powerful arbitrator and as someone whose responsibility it was (to God) to put a stop to dissent (because in dissent one side had to be wrong).

B. Donatism

1. Donatus was a North African priest who refused to accept those Christians who had renounced their faith (the traditores) during the persecution.

2. More specifically, he denied the validity of the sacraments of those priests who were guilty of serious sin.

a. This involved a serious question about the nature of the church: was it to be a body of the elect, or the perfect, or made up of sinners and saints alike?

b. Did the church have the ability to forgive sin?

c. Was the validity of the sacraments dependent upon the sanctity of the person who performed them?

3. Almost immediately after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge representatives of the African church approached Constantine, asking him to intervene in the controversy.

C. Imperial Involvement

1. Constantine clearly did not want to become involved in these religious disputes.

2. The bishops, however, told him it was his duty toward God to preserve orthodoxy, and Constantine took this seriously.

a. Constantine feared that God would desert him if he failed to maintain his part of the bargain.

b. Thus, Constantine set a precedent by involving the Roman state in the affairs of the church.

3. Constantine at first told both parties in the Donatist controversy simply to stop fighting-- that they were all Christians-- but this did no good.

4. Finally, Constantine supported the orthodox (catholic) party and told the Donatists to reunite with the rest of the church.

5. The Donatists naturally thought they were right and they refused; soldiers were ultimately used to enforce unity, but even this was not a total success and the Donatist church survived until the Arab conquest.

D. The Trinitarian Dilemma

1. The Christian tradition universally taught that God was one, yet most Christians also believed in the concept of the Trinity (three persons in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

2. Much theological controversy surrounded the attempt to reconcile these two ideas and theologians turned to the intellectual systems of Greek philosophy to give them a framework with which to approach this difficulty.

3. Byzantine Christians believed that their individual salvation depended on correct belief, so it was absolutely crucial to find the correct answer--and there could be only one correct answer.

E. Arianism

1. Arius was a priest in Alexandria who taught that Christ was not completely equal to the Father.

a. This idea naturally appealed to those who feared that the concept of the Trinity led to polytheism: this was avoided by making the Son somehow "less divine" than the Father.

b. Arius' teachings implied that the Father was a "creator" rather than a "generating" god; these teachings were more in keeping with Aristotelian than with Platonic ideas.

2. The teachings of Arius caused a great uproar and confusion throughout the East.

3. Constantine was ultimately persuaded to summon a council of bishops from the whole empire (an ecumenical or empire-wide council).

a. The idea of bishops meeting together to discuss matters of faith was an old one; it was probably patterned on the example of the Roman Senate and the council of Roman cities.

b. Constantine viewed the council as a political assembly and regarded it much the same way that he regarded the Roman Senate: the emperor was to summon the council and approve its decisions.

4. The council met at Nicaea in 325.

a. There was much confusion and disagreement.

b. Finally the opponents of Arius came up with a creed that said that Christ as homoousios with the Father (of the same ousia or substance or essence).

c. Arius could not accept that teaching and he and his followers were condemned, by both the state and the official church.

5. Nevertheless, Arianism remained a vital force in the East for years to come.

a. Constantine himself had second thoughts about the teachings of the Council of Nicaea, especially after some things started to go wrong in his life.

b. His son Constantius II was an outright Arian, as was the emperor Valens later in the century.

• As a very general rule, Arianism was quite popular in the East, but it never gained a strong hold in the Latin West.
• The Arian emperors were especially strong rulers and they persecuted the homoousians.
• In a context such as this, it is easy to see how difficult it is to use terms such as "orthodox" and "heretical."

c. A number of "semi-Arian" groups emerged, in part as a result of attempts to find a compromise between Arianism and homoousian "orthodoxy."

6. It was during the Arian dominance of Constantinople that the Goths and many other German groups were converted to Christianity.

a. Ulfilas was the "apostle to the Goths" and he had the Bible translated into their language.

b. Most of the Germanic peoples became Arians, and they were distinguished from the Romans on that point.

7. Theodosius I (379-95) was orthodox and he established orthodoxy once and for all within the empire at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

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