Transcript Persecution & Heresies

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Christianity is considered a sect or break off
of Judaism
 Good: projection of protection
 Bad: Jewish Wars; Christianity’s expansion to
influential people
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Roman government is theocracy
 Worship of gods is part of politics of protection
 Expected of soldiers
▪ Hence, prohibition for Christians to be soldiers
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In total, there were 10 major persecutions of
Christians during the Roman Empire.
 Christianity was punishable by death during this era, yet
pardon was available to those willing to renounce their
religion by offering sacrifice to the emperor or Roman
gods. The offering of sacrifices became a particularly
contentious issue and a kind of religious litmus test.
Honoring Rome's gods and goddesses was considered a
civic obligation and, at times, a law. But many Christians
refused to break with their faith. They were often
executed and then hailed by their coreligionists as
martyrs. (National Geographic website)
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At least 10,000 (perhaps as much as 10 times
that number) Christians were killed for
religious reasons before the year 313
 AD 313 is the legalization of Christianity under
Constantine
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Under Nero (AD 67) & Domitian (AD 81)
Very severe
Targeted any Christian
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Emperor from 54-68
One Of The Most Evil Men In History
Blames Christians for Rome’s fire
Kills St Peter & St Paul
Examples of Nero’s tortures
NB: Persecutions of Christians before 60 AD
were mostly done by Jews
 Example: St Stephen; St James
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Emperor from 81-96
Named himself “Dominus et Deus”
Vox populi vox Dei
 Mobs looted and destroyed Christian places,
tortured and killed Christian people
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Accusation of treason, orgies, incest, etc.
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Under Trajan (AD 108), Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus (AD 162), Severus (AD 192) &
Maximus (AD 235)
Most Emperors during this time are skillful
leaders, not paranoid or bloodthirsty.
Nevertheless, treason could not be tolerated.
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The advance of Christianity threatened or
alarmed the Romans, to the extent that even
an Emperor like Severus, who generally
favored Christians, could not resist the
animosity
The persecution during these eras was
sporadic (regional) and desultory
Targeted primarily clergy and famous laity
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Trajan’s Letter to Pliny
 “The whole account they gave of their crime or error
(whichever it is to be called) amounted only to this-viz. that they were accustomed on a stated day to
meet before daylight, and to repeat together a set
form of prayer to Christ as a God, and to bind
themselves by an obligation--not indeed to commit
wickedness; but, on the contrary--never to commit
theft, robbery, or adultery, never to falsify their word,
never to defraud any man: after which it was their
custom to separate, and reassemble to partake in
common of a harmless meal.” (Pliny)
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Notables:
 Ignatius
▪ “I am corresponding with all the churches and bidding them
all realize that I am voluntarily dying for God—if, that is, you
do not interfere. I plead with you, do not do me an
unseasonable kindness. Let me be fodder for wild beasts—
that is how I can get to God. I am God's wheat and I am being
ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for
Christ. 2I would rather that you fawn on the beasts so that
they may be my tomb and no scrap of my body be left. Thus,
when I have fallen asleep, I shall be a burden to no one. Then I
shall be a real disciple of Jesus Christ when the world sees my
body no more. Pray Christ for me that by these means I may
become God's sacrifice.” (To the Romans)
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Notables:
 Polycarp
▪ Elderly bishop
▪ “Down with the Atheists. Let’s find Polycarp!”
▪ When they came to arrest Polycarp and lead him to
execution, he went to greet the soldiers. And they said to
themselves, “Why was so much effort made to capture such a
venerable man?” Then Polycarp ordered food and drink for
the soldiers while they allowed him to pray for one hour.
 Perpetua
 Justin Martyr
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Under Decius (AD 249)
Targeted all Christians, clergy and laity
All Christians were required not only to offer
sacrifice, but also to acquire official
certificates from witnesses to their offering
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Under Valerian (AD 257) & Aurelian (AD 274)
Notables
 Pope Sixtus & Lawrence
 Rufina & Secunda: women who were turned in by
former Christian lovers
 Cyprian (the Donatists)
 Alban in England
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What is a rescript?
 A Roman emperor's written reply to an appeal for
guidance, especially on a legal point
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Describe Valerian’s two rescripts (p. 57)
 Handout
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Under Diocletian (AD 303)
Known as “The Great Persecution”
Persecution included
 Burning books
 Leveling churches to the ground
 Outlawing Christians of all denominations
 All Christians in the empire were commanded to
sacrifice to the gods or face immediate execution
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What were Diocletian’s 4 edicts? (handout)
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Determined by the political religion of the
empire
Considered the largest
 Over 20,000 Christians are thought to have died
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Perhaps the most comprehensive of such
anti-Christian hostilities
Aggressively enforced in the East, but not so
much in the West (where Constantine’s father
was co-emperor)
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What is a heresy?
 Obstinate disbelief in one or more articles of the
Faith
 Denies or alters one or more parts of the Deposit
of Faith
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Examples
What is the difference between heresy and
apostasy?
 Can heresy become apostasy?
 Can apostasy become heresy?
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Material heresy
 Material heresy occurs when a baptized person is
ignorant about some aspect of the Faith,
misunderstands it, or makes an erroneous
judgment.
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Formal heresy
 Formal heresy occurs when a baptized person
makes a free, conscious decision to deny some
part of the Deposit of Faith
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Examples
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Sharp separation between material and
immaterial
 Which is real?
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Based on Plato’s view of reality
 Ideal (Form) vs. Copy (Material)
 Example: The “real” chair
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Secret Knowledge
 Only “those in the know”(those who really know
what is going on) are saved (Illuminati?)
 Knowledge given by a spirit
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Earliest heresy
Sets up all other heresies
Believed in the Trinity
 Three persons not equal, not consubstantial
 Father is Supreme God; Son and Spirit are lesser
emanations or appearances or personalities
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Believed in Jesus as Savior
 Not fully human or fully divine
 Not truly incarnate
 Not savior toward resurrection of the body
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God cannot create evil, so the Father did not
create the material world
The material world is inferior
 Sees creation as a “copy” of the “ideal/real”
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All matter is corruptible and decays, and so it
cannot be real
Evil is contained within the material world
 The world, therefore, cannot be “good”
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Human soul is eternal; body is “necessary
evil”
 The mind/spirit/soul is the real you
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Goodness is innate, but can be corrupted by
the material
The body doesn’t matter, so abuse it
The “real you” has little or nothing to do with
your body (plumbing is incidental)
Your emotions, feelings, thoughts and beliefs
are the only things that are “real.”
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Rejected the Incarnation
 Jesus is the Spirit of God
 Jesus “seems” to be human (Docetism)
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Jesus was sent to battle Satan
Jesus came to save the spirit/soul/mind, not
the body
Resurrection of Jesus (and others) is a
phantasm
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Old Testament God is too materialistic
 Too concerned with material things
 Too violent (which is a characteristic of the
material world)
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Salvation comes through gnosis (“secret
knowledge”)
 The sacraments impart gnosis; the actual
substance does not matter
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No resurrection of the body
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The idea that our bodies are simply a shell
 Results: cremation, sex-change operations
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The idea that we can be saved regardless of
how we live
 Results: fasting, self-discipline are not helpful
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The idea that grace is given apart from
material substances
 Results: faith trumps transubstantiation
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Iconoclasm: Liturgical arts don’t matter
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Marcionism
 “Old Testament God” is not the real God but a
fantasy of the Jews
 Anti-Semitic
 Too materialistic, too violent
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Catholic Response
 God of Old & New is the same God
 God loves material world
 Jews are part of Catholic heritage
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Manichaeism
 Two gods – god of evil (Satan), god of good (God)
 Material/body is evil, spiritual/soul is good
 Constant war in world, within each person,
between the two gods
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Catholic Response
 Only one God
 Evil is ungood, not real
 Humans are both body and soul, created and
redeemed by God
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Montanism
 Spirit directly teaches people true knowledge
(gnosis)
 No need for Hierarchy or Magisterium
 Sacraments convey gnosis
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Catholic Response
 God uses mediators
 The matter of the sacraments is as important as
the grace in them
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Docetism
 Jesus only “seems” to be human; he took on a
human “shell” (matter is corrupt, beneath God)
 Temptation of Jesus is a mirage
 Jesus did not really suffer or die or rise
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Catholic Response
 Jesus is fully human and fully divine
 Jesus’ Passion truly happened
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Two Key Issues:
 Trinity: What is Jesus’ relationship to the Father
 Christological: What does it mean to say that
Jesus is fully human and fully divine
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IMPORTANT: This issue will consume the
church for 400 years, and will be resolved in
the 7 Ecumenical Councils
 First two Councils will focus on Trinity issue
 Last five will focus on Christological issue
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Theme: “There was a time when the Logos
[the Son] was not.”
Point: The Son of God was created by the
Father of God
Result: The Father and the Son are not
consubstantial (homoousios)
 They do not share the same ousia/essence (Gr =
being) or substance/nature (Lat = what it is)
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Focus on hypostasis/person (who it is) at the
expense of the ousia/essence
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Father and Son are alike (homoiousios) but
not equal or consubstantial
Holy Spirit not God but Jesus’ “spirit”
Holy Spirit not consubstantial
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Formulated in two Ecumenical Councils
 What is an Ecumenical Council?
 See page 68
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Nicene Creed (AD 325)
 “God from God, Light from Light, true God from
true God”
 “begotten, not made”
 “consubstantial [homoousios] with the Father”
 “by whom all things were made”
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Constantinopolitan Creed (AD 381)
 Completes the Nicene Creed, with a focus on the
Holy Spirit and the Church
 “Lord, the giver of Life”
 “proceeds from the Father [and the Son]
 “with the Father and the Son is adored and
glorified”
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Taught by Apollinarius, a subtle Arian
Teaching: Jesus is fully human except for his
soul/mind/will
Error: Jesus is not fully human because all
humans have a human soul/mind/will
Reply: Nicene Creed reaffirmed at
Constantinople I council
Reply: “What Jesus did not assume, he could
not heal” (St Gregory Nazianzen)
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Taught by Nestorius, bishop of
Constantinople
Teaching: Jesus Christ is the union of two
distinct persons (Jesus = human, Christ =
divine)
 The two never really intermingle
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Error: Jesus’ humanity can be separated from
his divinity
Effect I: Eucharist is not transubstantiated,
but consubstantiated
Effect II: Real union with God is not possible
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Reply: Mary is the Mother of God (Ephesus)
Reply: Jesus is one person with two natures
“indivisibly, inseparably” (Chalcedon)
Reply: “God became man so that man might
become God” (St Athanasius)
Reply: “What God is by nature we become by
grace”
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Monophysitism = one (mono) nature (physis)
Teaching: Jesus has only one nature, not two
 Jesus’ human nature is absorbed into his divine
nature
 Extreme: Jesus is a hybrid, neither human nor
divine
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Error: Jesus is not fully human because there
is no real distinction between the two natures
Reply: Jesus is human and divine
“inconfusedly, unchangeably” (Chalcedon)
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one
consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and
also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a
reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with the Father according to the Godhead,
and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood;
in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before
all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in
these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of
the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the
Manhood;
one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be
acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly,
unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction
of natures being by no means taken away by the union,
but rather the property of each nature being preserved,
and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not
parted or divided into two persons, but one and the
same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord
Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have
declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers
has handed down to us.
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Monothelitism = one (mono) will (theleo)
Teaching: Jesus has two natures but only one
will
 Jesus’ will/desire is identical to the Father’s
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Error: Jesus is not fully human because he has
no free will
Effect: The temptation was a charade
 “Not my will but yours be done” is meaningless
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Reply: Jesus is fully human and so he has a
human will
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Taught by Donatus, a rigorist bishop
Teaching: The sacraments performed by
immoral clergy are invalid
Error: Sacraments depend on a human, not
on God
Reply: All clergy operate “in persona Christi”
Reply: Holiness of sacraments depends on
the Holy Spirit, not on the holiness of a man
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Taught by Pelagius
Teaching: Humans can be saved without
God’s grace
 Be a good person (behavior), and you’ll go to
heaven
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Error: Denies the effect of Original Sin
Reply: No one is saved except through Jesus
Christ, who is God’s grace incarnate
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Martyrs
 Witness to the faith by self-sacrifice
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Confessor
 Witness to the faith by self-sacrifice without
benefit of martyrdom
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Church Fathers
 Teachers who explain the faith against some
heresy or challenge
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Doctors
 34 men and women recognized for clear teaching
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St Ambrose (p. 70)
 Basic story
 Stood up against a violent emperor
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St Jerome (p. 70)
 Single-handedly translated the entire Scriptures
▪ Vulgate: the official Roman Catholic translation until
1970
 Learned Jewish culture to understand the time of
Jesus
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St John Chrysostom (p. 72)
 “Golden-mouth” because of his excellent
preaching
 Bishop of Constantinople who criticized overt
luxury and moral laxity
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St Athanasius
 Bishop of Alexandria
 Very active at Nicaea I
 Taught that Jesus was consubstantial with God
and with humans
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Cappadocian Fathers (p. 77-78)
 St Basil, St Gregory Nyssa, St Gregory Nazianzen
 Active at Constantinople I
 Opposed Arians and Apollinarians
 Set up defense against Nestorians
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St Leo the Great (p. 80)
 Bishop of Rome
 Described the Two Natures (Chalcedon)
 Political hero as well as theologian
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St Augustine (p. 82-83)
 Greatest Western theologian; great philosopher
 Against Manicheism: Evil is not a thing
 Against Donatism: Sacraments depend on God’s
grace, not on man’s holiness
 Against Pelagianism: No one has escaped the
effects of Original Sin; therefore, grace is
necessary
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Son of Christian mother (Helen)
 Helen found the true cross and built many
churches in the Holy Land
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Becomes supreme Emperor by sign of the
cross (Battle at Milvian Bridge)
 NIKA (Under this sign, conquer)
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Legalizes Christianity
Calls First Ecumenical Council
 Enforces decision
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Builds Constantinople
 “New Rome” – shifts power center for Empire
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Was Constantine a true Christian, or a
pragmatic politician?
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Third emperor after Constantine
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Worked to reestablish paganism on an equal
footing with Christianity
Stripped Christians of the special benefits
Copied Christian worship for pagan rituals
Succeeding emperors reduced paganism to
oblivion and returned to Christianity the
rights he had taken from it
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Julian’s letters
 “These impious Galileans not only feed their own poor,
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but ours also; welcoming them into their agape, they
attract them, as children are attracted, with cakes.”
 “Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated
Galileans devote themselves to works of charity, and by a
display of false compassion have established and given
effect to their pernicious errors. See their love-feasts, and
their tables spread for the indigent.”
 “Such practice is common among them, and causes a
contempt for our gods.”
What do these passages reveal about fourth
century Christian practices?
What do these passages reveal about Emperor
Julian’s bias against Christianity?
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Decreed Christianity the official religion of
the Empire (391)
 Heresy becomes illegal
 Struggle about what constitutes heresy
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The church survives due to the leadership of
the bishops, the role of the Ecumenical
Councils and the teaching of the Church
Fathers.
Practical result: “symphony” between church
and state
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What was the nature of the first Roman
persecutions?
 Emperor Nero launched a brutal persecution of
Christians, scapegoating them for the burning of
Rome, for which he himself was rumored to have
been responsible.
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How did the persecutions of the Christians
develop after Domitian?
 Trajan’s Rescript declared it a capital crime to
profess Christianity. Hadrian’s Rescript advised
that Christians should not be prosecuted for
professing Christ, which was reversed under
Marcus Aurelius. St. Justin Martyr defended
Christianity to the Roman senate and emperor.
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How were persecutions under Diocletian the
worst Christians had suffered under Roman
emperors?
 Persecutions under Diocletian were the worst
Christians had endured because they were the
most widespread and inclusive; Christians
throughout the empire had either to renounce the
Faith or to face death.
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Why was the Edict of Milan (AD 313) issued,
and what change did it make in the lives of
Christians?
 Constantine attributed his victory at the Milvian
Bridge to the intervention of the Christian God. To
stay in his good graces, he issued the Edict of
Milan, which gave the Christians the freedom to
worship.
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What is heresy?
 Heresy is a post-baptismal, obstinate disbelief in
one or more articles of the Faith.
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Which doctrines did Gnostics, Marcionists,
Manichæans, Montanists, and Docetists
deny?
 Gnosticism syncretizes Christian symbolism and
bases salvation on secret knowledge.
 Marcionism creates a false dualism between law
and love. Marcion identified the supposedly evil,
vengeful God of the Law with the Gnostic
Demiurge; he identified the Supreme Being as the
good God of Love.
 Manichæism is a Gnostic, dualistic religion in which
there are two equal gods: one good and the other evil.
It holds that the world was created by Satan but
secret knowledge and severe asceticism can bring
salvation.
 Montanism holds that the arrival of the Kingdom of
God is imminent and its leaders are inspired directly
by the Holy Spirit.
 Docetism claims that God would never have become
man and suffer such a degrading death, so someone
else must have been substituted for Christ on the
Cross.
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What is the nature and function of an
Ecumenical Council?
 Twenty-one Ecumenical Councils have been held
over the past 1700 years to define and defend the
Faith, morals, and discipline of Catholicism.
 The first seven are the most important. They focus
on Christology, describing how Jesus is both fully
divine and fully human.
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What is a Father of the Church, and who were
some of the most important?
 Father of the Church is a title given to great and
holy leaders of the early Church who explained
the Faith and fought heresy.
 Some of the most important were St. Ambrose of
Milan, who defended the rights of the Church,
even bending the wills of Roman emperors; the
monk St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from
its original languages into Latin; and the monk St.
John Chrysostom, who, as Patriarch of
Constantinople, clashed with the Empress
Euodoxia, who persecuted him until his death.
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What was the origin of some of the early
Church heresies?
 Heresies arose in the Church because of
inaccurate interpretations of the Gospels and
imprecise philosophical definitions.
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What was the error of Arianism, and what
central doctrines of the Faith were
threatened by it?
 Arians taught that Jesus was of a similar
substance to God the Father but an inferior
creature. This rejection of his divinity threatened
especially the doctrines of the Trinity and the
Redemption.
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What are the core errors of the Donatist and
Pelagian heresies?
 Two heresies attacked the Sacraments of the
Church: Donatists taught that sinful ministers
could not celebrate the Sacraments validly, and
Pelagianists taught that people can be saved
without grace, thereby making the Sacraments
unnecessary.
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How did Chrisitianity become the official
religion of the Roman Empire?
 Despite an interruption during the reign of Julian
the Apostate, Christianity was granted increasing
benefits during the fourth century until
Theodosius made Christianity the official religion
of the empire.