RELIGION IN THE SIXTH CENTURY: JUSTINIAN AS A THEOLOGIAN
The reign of Justinian in its theological aspect was a long contest
between the Dyophysites, that is, the Orthodox Christians according to
the creed of the dominant hierarchy, and the Monophysites. Although the
Emperor was devotedly attached to Orthodoxy, he was above all things
desirous of finding some common ground on which the conflicting sects
could meet and be reconciled. From the opposite side Theodora was
animated by a similar policy; she warmly espoused the Monophysite
doctrine, but was equally anxious with her husband to promote a general
union of the Christian Church. The Monophysites at this time were
divided into two parties, viz., the uncompromising Acephali, who would
concede nothing, and those who accepted the Henoticon of Zeno (482). The
former, almost all Egyptians, anathematized the Council of Chalcedon;
the latter, chiefly Asiatics, pretended to tolerate that synod with the
reservations expressed by the Henoticon.[625] Thus, in the East there
was a partial agreement between the Orthodox and Monophysites; but the
Christians in the West were as uncompromisingly Orthodox as the Acephali
in Egypt were dissident: the Patriarch Acacius, the author of the
Henoticon, had been excommunicated for that piece of work by the
contemporary Pope, Felix.[626]
After the death of Anastasius, the hierarchies of Rome and
Constantinople had resumed friendly relations, owing to the policy
adopted by Justin and Justinian of persecuting the Monophysites;[627]
but under the influence of Theodora, or because of the Emperor's
discouragement at the results of these harsh measures, the opening of
the new reign wore a much more benign aspect toward the heretics.
Amicable discussion of the points of controversy and mutual concession
became the prevalent sentiment of the Court; and soon Monophysites of
every grade in the priestly office began to crowd into the capital.
Justinian received them with condescension and Theodora afforded them
material hospitality, finding them quarters according to their rank in
the house of Hormisdas and even in the Imperial palace.[628] The Emperor
argued questions of doctrine with them as a prelate might do with his
inferior clergy, and convened representative meetings of both parties
with a view to the resolution of differences.[629] His success, however,
was limited to the addition of one of the less contestable formulas of
the Monophysites to the Catholic theology, viz., that "God was crucified
for us,"[630] but this step did not meet with universal or permanent
approbation.[631] Yet Theodora was able to push her influence to such an
extent that she procured the translation of Anthimus, Bishop of
Trebizond, who was known to have heretical leanings, to the Patriarchate
of Constantinople (535).[632] This appointment was such a triumph for
the dissident sect that they assumed their advent to power to be
actually realized; and the recognized leader of the Monophysites,
Severus, the deposed Bishop of Antioch, who had previously repulsed
Justinian's advances as being illusory, now issued from his retreat and
appeared among the dependents of the Byzantine Court.[633]
This ascendancy, however, rested on no solid ecclesiastical foundation,
but was sustained merely by the breath of Court favour, as directed by
Theodora. At the moment when the prospects of the Monophysites seemed
brightest it is probable that disaster from some quarter was imminent
and inevitable, but the immediate cause of their ruin was a fortuitous
circumstance arising in connection with Justinian's foreign policy. In
the beginning of 536 Pope Agapetus arrived at Constantinople,
commissioned by Theodahad to effect some favourable accommodation for
him with the Emperor.[634] Among the more intimate members of his suite
were two deacons of noble family, Vigilius and Pelagius. The Catholic
prelates, who were indignant at the elevation of Anthimus, immediately
surrounded the Pope and induced him to refuse communion with the new
Patriarch unless he should prove his Orthodoxy.[635] Agapetus,
therefore, challenged Anthimus to a debate on the articles of the faith
in the presence of Justinian, and easily convicted him of flagrant
error. Excommunication, notwithstanding the menaces of Theodora, at once
followed, and the Emperor could not resist the Pope's demand that he
should be expelled from his see.[636] The Empress at once took him under
her personal protection, and gave him private apartments in the
Palace.[637] At the same time she began to intrigue for his restoration,
and the course of events seemed to shape itself very fortunately in her
favour. The Pope died in the spring of the same year before he could set
out on his return journey; and concomitantly Belisarius was making
brilliant progress in his invasion of Italy. Vigilius was a recognized
candidate for the see of Rome, and had, in fact, been irregularly
nominated before the consecration of Agapetus.[638] Theodora approached
him with bribes and threats; he should be Pope, and receive also a large
pecuniary grant, if he agreed to adopt the policy she defined for him.
Vigilius gave her all the assurances she required; he would condemn the
Council of Chalcedon and communicate with the three leaders of the
Monophysites, Anthimus, Severus, and Theodosius of Alexandria, the only
one who was in occupation of a see. At her dictation he at once wrote a
letter to these prelates, confessing the same faith as themselves;[639]
and then he departed for Italy with a mandate for Belisarius directing
that he should be installed in the Papal seat.[640] He joined the Master
of Soldiers at Naples, and, after the capture of that city, accompanied
him to Rome.[641]
In the meantime, however, Theodahad had filled the vacancy, and caused
Silverius to be created Pope in due form. When the Byzantine army
entered the Western capital after the flight of the Goths, as already
related, Belisarius took up his abode in a palace on the Pincian
Hill;[642] and, in concert with his wife, who was better versed than
himself in such matters, endeavoured to carry out the ecclesiastical
policy of the Empress. At first, persuasion was tried, in order to
induce Silverius to adapt himself to altered circumstances, but he was a
strenuous upholder of Orthodoxy and would make no concession. It was
decided, therefore, to find a pretext for deposing him, and with that
view libels were circulated, insinuating that he was now acting in
collusion with the Goths. His residence was in the Lateran palace near
the Asinarian gate, and he was accused of plotting to admit the enemy
through that portal. He repudiated the charge and removed his habitation
to an interior part of the city.[643] A letter was then forged, in which
his treasonable relations with Vitigis were set forth in precise
terms;[644] whereupon he was summoned to the presence of the general on
the Pincian. He found Belisarius sitting at the feet of his wife, who
was reclining on a couch; and the moment he entered, Antonina addressed
him with: "My Lord Pope, what have we done to you and the Romans that
you should wish to betray us to the Goths?" She had scarcely finished
speaking, when a pair of subservient deacons stripped him of his
pallium, and hastily enveloped him in a monkish habit. He was then
hurried away to exile, while the information was spread among the
populace that the Pope had been made a monk.[645] After his deposition,
Vigilius was consecrated without delay or difficulty, little or nothing
being known at Rome of the pledges he had given at the Byzantine Court
to apostatize from the Catholic faith. Theodora soon claimed the
fulfilment of his promises, but in the West he found himself in an
atmosphere where no departure from Orthodoxy would be tolerated, whilst
in the East the tide was running so strongly against the Monophysites
that no neutral ecclesiastic could be so indiscreet as to espouse their
cause. He, therefore, put her off with professions of inability and
evasive replies, so that the heretics were as far off as ever from being
countenanced by the Papal chair.[646] Vigilius even thought it prudent
to purge himself of any suspicion of heresy by writing to Justinian and
the Patriarch Menna, who had succeeded Anthimus, in terms which left no
doubt of his orthodoxy.[647] As for Silverius, his first place of exile
was Lycia, and from thence reports were sent up to the Court
representing that he had been wrongfully accused. Justinian was thus
influenced to issue a mandate for him to return to Italy, and clear
himself, but, as he drew near to Rome, he was again arrested and
deported to the isle of Palmaria, where he died within the year.[648] It
was generally believed that he perished gradually through inanition, the
result of his being kept on a very meagre diet by Vigilius;[649] but the
definite statement of Procopius that he was made away with by one
Eugenius, an assassin suborned by Antonina at the instance of Theodora,
has the strongest claims on our credence.[650]
After the death of Silverius, the theological peace of the West remained
undisturbed for several years; but Justinian and Theodora at New Rome
never flagged in their efforts to approach from opposite sides the goal
of union between the two great Christian sects. After the deposition of
Anthimus, however, the Emperor felt that he had been too yielding to the
heretics; and he now allowed the Orthodox bishops of the East to give
practical effect to their abhorrence of the Monophysites. It must be
admitted, indeed, that the members of that sect who had flocked to the
capital under the impression that the injunction against their teaching
had been for ever rescinded, went far beyond the limits of moderation;
and entered on a tireless mission which seemed to aim at no less than to
proselytize the whole mass of the Constantinopolitans to their
creed.[651] One of the first acts, therefore, of the new Patriarch,
Menna, was to convene a Council under the Imperial sanction, at which
more than three score bishops and a number of inferior clergy received
protests from all parts of the Empire, and pronounced sentence of
deprivation against their opponents, wherever they might be found.[652]
A general flight of the sectaries, who had shown themselves to be so
irrepressible in the city, ensued; and a repetition of the persecution
which marked the accession of Justin was reintegrated throughout the
Asiatic provinces.[653] Nevertheless, the Empress provided secure
refuges for numbers of those who were pursued, and even determined by
her active interference the tenure of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
That city was the stronghold of the Acephali, and when the episcopal
throne became vacant in 536, an extremist named Gaianus was immediately
elected to fill it by the most powerful local faction.[654] Theodosius,
who accepted the Henoticon, was the nominee of the local government, as
inspired by Theodora, but his confirmation was resisted by violent
riots. The Empress at once despatched Narses to establish her candidate
by the aid of the military; and the eunuch had to wage a civil war in
the streets of the hostile city, amid showers of missiles launched from
windows and from roofs of houses by infuriated women, before he could
achieve his object.[655] Yet the Orthodox party had become so
reinvigorated that the very next year the presence of the Egyptian
primate was commanded at the Imperial capital, where he was offered the
option of accepting fully the Council of Chalcedon, or of deposition
from his see. He chose the latter alternative, and was banished to the
Castle of Dercos in Thrace, which had been chosen for the seclusion of
Monophysites who were unable, or who had not deigned to escape.[656]
Shortly, however, there was a lull in the storm of Orthodox rancour; and
a flourishing brotherhood of Monophysites was permitted to exist at
Sycae, where a monastery had been built for them, and liberally endowed
by Theodora. To this establishment Theodosius returned before a
twelvemonth, and continued for more than a quarter of a century to be
the head of it.[657]
Early in the fifth decade of the sixth century the great theological
question which agitated the subsequent years of Justinian's reign, had
its origin. Paul, the Alexandrian Patriarch who had replaced Theodosius,
became involved shortly after his accession in a scandal connected with
the unwarrantable execution of a deacon by Rhodo, the Augustal Praefect.
The Emperor and his consort were much affected by this circumstance, and
decreed that Paul should be tried for his share in it by an
ecclesiastical court.[658] The Patriarch was convicted, deposed, and one
Zoilus appointed in his stead, but these occurrences were merely
collateral to the main event. Among the ecclesiastics in favour at the
Byzantine Court were Pelagius, the Papal nuncio, and Theodore Ascidas,
Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.[659] Their rivalry for the Imperial
patronage was keen, and they were mutually desirous of damaging one
another in the estimation of the sovereign. The court which tried Paul
assembled at Gaza (542), and was summoned for the purpose by Pelagius,
acting as Imperial Commissioner. Certain monks of Jerusalem availed
themselves of his proximity and authority to forward a petition to the
Emperor against an antagonistic fraternity who were earnest
disseminators of the doctrines of Origen.[660] The brothers complained
of emanated from the New Laura in that region;[661] and it happened that
Theodore Ascidas had formerly been one of their associates. Knowing,
therefore, that he would be zealous in the defence of Origen, Pelagius
eagerly accepted the advocacy of the complainants as a means of injuring
his rival; and on his return to Constantinople at once apprised the
Emperor as to the teeming crop of error which threatened to befoul the
sources of the faith in Palestine. Justinian listened with avidity, and
forthwith began an assiduous study of the works of Origen with a view to
the disclosure of noxious passages. As that father had lived before any
definite creed of the Christian faith had been specified, and had been
deeply imbued with notions derived from Egyptian and Oriental mythology,
Justinian was shortly successful in unearthing a mass of glaring heresy
from his writings. This material was then systematically drafted into
canons, which were embodied in a formal requisition from the Emperor to
the Patriarch that Origen should be anathematized in a council of
bishops.[662] In the meantime Theodore, anxious to retaliate against
Pelagius, and to disturb the convictions of the Orthodox in general, as
well as to divert attention from Origen to a greater issue, had devised
a skilful attack on the Council of Chalcedon. The action of the Roman
legate had created a precedent for reviewing and censuring the opinions
of ecclesiastics long since dead; and his adversary perceived that this
new method could be applied effectively to damage the authority of the
synod in question. Two bishops, who had incurred the charge of
Nestorianism, had been expressly approved at Chalcedon; whilst a third,
who was infected, had been passed over without animadversion.[663]
Besides being an Origenist, Theodore was a temperate Monophysite;[664]
and he now persuaded the Emperor that a qualified condemnation of the
defunct prelates would purge the Council of every blemish and win for it
the acceptance of all of his creed. Justinian again applied himself to
his studies, and soon convinced himself that the theologians indicated
had been tainted with flagrant impiety; upon which he published an edict
wherein their respective errors were reprobated in three sections.[665]
In the East but little commotion was occasioned by this document, as the
objections were familiar to those accustomed to read the Greek Fathers,
but among the Latins the Church was agitated violently because nothing
was comprehended[666] except that the Council of Chalcedon, the
decisions of which had been dictated by Pope Leo, was convicted of
fallacy. On that side of the Empire, therefore, controversy and stubborn
resistance was at once manifested against the Emperor's proscription of
the "Three Chapters," the title conveniently bestowed on the matters in
dispute.[667]
Justinian, as usual, was determined to carry his point; and he now
concluded that the most effective means of attaining his end was to
procure a Papal ordinance in confirmation of his own edict. But Vigilius
at Rome was beyond the power of persuasion, and might soon not be
amenable even to force. His presence at Constantinople was, therefore,
an urgent necessity; and when the Emperor expressed himself to that
effect he was eagerly seconded by Theodora, who was anxious to arraign
the Pope for having broken faith with her. With the decision that was
habitual to her she resolved that he should be compulsorily deported,
and at once despatched an officer with strict injunctions to seize
Vigilius wherever he should find him, with the single exception of St.
Peter's Cathedral.[668] The Italian capital was not yet beset by the
Goths, and the orders of the Empress were executed to the letter (545).
In broad day, while celebrating the holy office in the church of St.
Cecilia, the Pope was arrested by a company of guards and hurried
through the streets to a ship which lay waiting in the Tiber. A
concourse of people thronged after him, and, as soon as they saw him
standing without restraint on the deck of the vessel, they clamoured for
a benediction. He acceded to their request, and when he had finished,
the ship began to put off from the shore. Only then did they realize
that he was actually about to leave them, whereupon their demeanour
changed suddenly, and they gave a striking proof that they were inspired
by two natures. Stones, sticks, and old pots were hurled after the
receding pontiff, whilst they yelled abusive epithets at the top of
their voices: "Famine and death go with you! You have done badly by the
Romans; may you fare ill wherever you go!"[669]
Vigilius did not now complete the voyage to the Imperial city, but,
being landed at Syracuse, remained there about a year,[670] as Justinian
was not yet prepared to push the question to a crisis. In 547, however,
Emperor and Pope met at Constantinople, and embraced each other with the
greatest seeming cordiality.[671] For some time they worked together in
perfect concord, while Justinian entirely won over the head of the
Western Church to his views; and in the next year a papal decree was
promulgated, under the title of the "Judicatum," in which the Three
Chapters were anathematized in the terms dictated by the Imperial
theologian.[672] But this decisive act was the signal for Western
indignation to rise to its height; and Vigilius was stricken with awe at
finding that he could scarcely count on a single adherent in the Roman
half of the Empire.[673] Latin ecclesiastics at once began to compose
and circulate elaborate treatises in which they contravened the Imperial
and Papal pronouncements and maintained that the proceedings at
Chalcedon had been infallible in every detail.[674] Vigilius, therefore,
withdrew his Judicatum without reserve, a measure which caused the
tension of opinion between Emperor, Pope, and Patriarch to become acute.
The arch-priests excommunicated each other,[675] and Justinian became
desperate at finding himself defied at the moment when he believed
himself to be in touch with the goal. He issued a new edict (551),
condemning the Three Chapters, and insisted that the Pope should sign
it.[676] But Vigilius had now been joined by some Western bishops and
clerics, and especially by the resolute Pelagius, who thought the
contest demanded his presence in the East. With the support of these
coadjutors, Vigilius persisted in his refusal to sign, while the
attitude of the Emperor became more and more threatening from day to
day. At length, fearing that personal violence would be resorted to, he
fled from his residence in the palace of Placidia to take sanctuary in
the adjacent church of St. Peter in Hormisdas; and here the Pope with
some of his supporters sought to save themselves by clinging to the
columns of the altar. As soon as this flight was announced to Justinian,
he commanded a praetor with an armed guard to arrest the fugitives in
the sanctuary, and drag them to his presence. The military entered the
church, followed by a popular concourse, and proceeded to execute their
orders. The lesser clerics were soon detached, but Vigilius embraced the
pillars of the altar with all his might. The soldiers laid hold of him,
some by the feet, some by the hair and beard, and strove to bear him off
by main force, but the massive structure gave way and would have crushed
the pontiff in its fall had its collapse not been prevented by some of
the deacons standing by.[677] A groan of horror arose from the crowd of
onlookers; the assailants then desisted from the struggle and released
their victim. Fearing that he might have gone too far, the praetor now
called off his men, and retired to inform the Emperor of what had
occurred. On hearing his report Justinian decided to proceed no further
by compulsion, and sent a deputation to give the Pope assurances that he
might return to the Placidian palace without fear of being again
subjected to physical coercion.[678] Vigilius acted according to these
representations and left the sanctuary; but a few months afterwards his
apprehensions were renewed and he again determined to vacate his secular
residence. One night, just before Christmas (551) he crept out at the
back of the premises, scaled a half-built wall, and made his way to the
water's edge. A boat was in waiting which carried him across to
Chalcedon, and there he took refuge in the Church of St. Euphemia.
Within the same walls a century previously had been held the famous
Council, of which he had involuntarily become the champion. In this
retreat a body of delegates, headed by Belisarius, soon arrived, bearing
protests from the Emperor as to his pacific intentions, and offering
every inducement for the Pope to return to the capital. Vigilius,
however, would listen to no entreaties, but drew up a history of his
sufferings in the cause of orthodoxy, which he embodied in an Encyclical
and published to the whole Christian world.[679] Justinian now decided
that perseverance in violent hostilities would be futile, and that a
personal reconciliation with the Pope on any terms would best serve his
Church policy. He, therefore, sent Menna and Theodore to offer ample
apologies for all that had passed, and to promise Vigilius that he
should in future be free to follow his own course with respect to
theological doctrine. The Pope accepted their professions, and, after a
mutual withdrawal of anathemas, returned to his quarters in the palace
of Placidia.[680]
Justinian now resolved that his reign should be distinguished by an
Œcumenical Council, at which the Catholic faith should be postulated in
accordance with his own theological bias. Almost all the Bishops of the
East were willing to confirm his edicts relating to Christian doctrine
in a general synod; and those who acted in opposition to him did so at
the peril of being ejected from their sees. In the spring of 553,
therefore, the assenting prelates poured into Constantinople from
diverse regions to the number of one hundred and sixty-five; and the
great assembly was held in one of the collateral halls of St. Sophia in
the month of May of that year.[681] The clerical concourse were
extremely anxious that Vigilius should take his seat with them at the
Council, but he was immutable in his resolution to uphold the Three
Chapters. Several deputations waited on him, with whom he held
colloquies, but to their invitations he replied invariably that the
Oriental bishops were many, whilst in his own following there were but
few.[682] In vain they urged that a very small number of Occidental
prelates had attended the previous Councils, for he had, in fact,
prepared a document, which he denominated his "Constitutum,"[683] to be
published before the meeting of the synod, in contravention of its
decrees. The Pope had now about him seventeen Latin bishops, as well as
Pelagius and other clerics, who inspired his determination and appended
their signatures to the Constitutum. That decretal was a lengthy
composition which included the responses of Vigilius to sixty
propositions of Theodore Ascidas, but the tenor of it was summed up in a
single sentence: "That it was not lawful to subvert anything constituted
by the Holy Council of Chalcedon."[684] The Fifth Œcumenical Council,
therefore, was held without the presence of the Pope, although he was
for the moment resident at its gates; and the discussion of his hostile
Constitutum formed an important part of its transactions. The Emperor
quoted passages from his Judicatum,[685] whereby he demonstrated that
Vigilius was in contradiction with himself; and ultimately the Council
decided that he had associated himself with impiety and voted that his
name should be erased from the sacred diptychs. At the same time they
asserted that their union with the Apostolical See of Rome remained
intact, notwithstanding that they dissociated themselves from the person
of the occupying pontiff.[686] Fourteen canons against the Three
Chapters were then proposed and ratified,[687] and a further rule of
credence was thus established for the Christian Church, which Justinian
at once proceeded to enforce with all the resources of his sovereignty.
A number of recalcitrant ecclesiastics were deprived and banished, or
placed in durance, among the latter being Pelagius.[688] As for
Vigilius, since Rome and Italy had now been brought permanently under
the dominion of the Emperor by the victories of Narses, he was anxious
to return to his see with the Imperial countenance; and within a year
after the sitting of the Council he effected a reconciliation with
Justinian by the issue of a second Constitutum, by which he retracted
the first, and again advocated the views he had professed in his
Judicatum.[689] Being thus restored to Court favour he was entrusted
with the Pragmatic Sanction and set out for Rome, as related above; but
he was now broken by years, and illness compelled him to interrupt his
voyage at Syracuse, where he died in the spring of 555.[690] The Emperor
now judged sagaciously that the vacant Popedom was an allurement which
would dissipate the most assured theological convictions; and he
determined to test its potency on the man who above all others was best
fitted for the Papal seat. When an intimation was conveyed to the
redoubtable champion of Chalcedon, Pelagius, that the pontificate was
the prize of his recantation, the weapons with which he had so long
defended the Three Chapters escaped from his nerveless grasp; and, while
he accepted the tiara of the West with one hand, he signed with the
other a convention that his faith was assimilated in all respects to
that of the princely donor.[691] The report of his defection preceded
him to Rome, and on his arrival there the influence of Narses scarcely
availed to induce three ecclesiastics of sufficient rank to perform the
ceremony of his consecration. He had covenanted with Justinian to
enforce the decrees of the Fifth General Council in the West with the
authority which attached to the occupant of St. Peter's chair; but the
hostility of the Latin bishops was so positive that he was obliged to
shelter himself behind ambiguous utterances and pronouncements as to his
unfaltering allegiance to the Council of Chalcedon. He organized a
solemn procession to St. Peter's, and, standing before the high altar
with the Cross and Gospels held above his head, and the Imperial
vicegerent at his side, affirmed his innocence of all the charges which
had been made against him.[692] He also addressed an Encyclical "To All
the People of God," in which he expressed his reverence in detail for
everything held sacred in the West, and his especial veneration for the
memory of "the Orthodox bishops, Theodoret and Ibas."[693] By these
asseverations he won over the Italian people and hierarchs in general to
his side, but the sees of Milan and Aquileia for long maintained a
schismatic attitude to the pontificate, and the Church of Gaul declined
communion with Rome for more than half a century.[694]
The Fifth Oecumenical Council was totally ineffective in procuring a
union between the Monophysites and the Catholic world. For more than a
decade before that synod the heretics of the One-Nature had been a
spreading sect, and they ultimately established themselves as one of the
permanent Churches of the East. This result is, perhaps, to be
attributed to the steady patronage bestowed on them by Theodora. From
the monastery at Sycae, with which she zealously associated herself,
emanated several prelates, whose missional activities brought over whole
districts and even nationalities to their creed; and especially that
extraordinary man, Jacob Baradaeus, in recognition of whose prodigious
efforts, sustained for more than thirty years, the title of Monophysites
was abrogated in favour of that of Jacobites. After an ascetic seclusion
of fifteen years at Constantinople he was (in 543) ordained Bishop of
Edessa by Theodosius, the exiled Patriarch of Alexandria; and thereafter
he pursued his labours untiringly throughout the Asiatic provinces,
returning continually from his round to the Imperial or Egyptian
capital, where the centres of the sect were maintained. Concealed under
a variety of disguises and penetrating the most inaccessible regions, he
walked thirty or forty miles daily to win over converts. During all this
time he eluded the vigilance of those who were eager to capture him,
either to obtain the reward offered by the Emperor, or to satiate the
rancour of the Orthodox. The ordination of two Patriarchs, twenty-seven
bishops, and one hundred thousand lesser clergy is recorded as the fruit
of his activities.[695] About the same time, Theodora, in conjunction
with Theodosius, despatched a missionary to Nubia, who was successful in
gaining the favour of King Silco of that country, and even caused a
rival, who was acting in the interests of Justinian, to be dismissed
with a rebuff.[696] At the petition of Arethas, prince of the
Ghassanides, the Empress also procured the ordination of a bishop for
Bostra, a populous town in the north of Arabia.[697] Thus, before her
death in 548, she had the satisfaction of seeing her favourite sect
dividing the allegiance of the population with the Catholics throughout
Asia and Africa.[698] Thenceforward, the Orthodox in the East were
called Melchites ("Royalists"), in contradistinction to the Jacobites,
as representing the Imperial party in religion.
In his relations with religion, Justinian is presented to us in no less
than six different aspects. We have seen him as a builder of churches,
and as an ecclesiastical statesman; it still remains for us to consider
him as a hierarch or clerical legislator, as a persecutor of heretics,
as a missionary or converter of the heathen, and as a theologian or
Christian metaphysician.
1. In the first department the Emperor enacted Constitutions dealing
with clerical life and authority in every relationship, his maxim being
that the salvation of the State and the individual depended on the
Church being maintained in its integrity.[699] In the case of a
bishopric becoming vacant, three candidates were to be nominated, and
the most fit elected by the votes of the ecclesiastics and the principal
citizens of the locality; but, if obtained by bribery, the election was
annulled. Essential qualifications of a bishop were that he should be
above thirty years of age and have no children or grandchildren, whereby
his attention might be distracted from his sacred duties. It was
necessary also that he should not be addicted to a curia, unless he had
gained his freedom from the same, through having spent fifteen years in
a monastery.[700] In the exercise of his office he was authorized to
supervise almost all the activities of civil life. He could demand an
account of expenditure from all persons charged with public works, such
as baths, roads, bridges, statues, aqueducts, harbours, and
fortifications, selecting three experts to assist him with their
experience; and he could call on the Rector with his cohort to help him
in dealing with recalcitrants.[701] He was enjoined to prohibit
gambling,[702] and to visit the prisons every Sunday in order to inquire
into the cases of those under detention.[703] It was his duty to see
that legacies left to the Church or to charities were properly applied
by the heirs or trustees;[704] and at one time Justinian allowed such
bequests to be exacted even after the lapse of a century, but he
subsequently reduced the limit to forty years.[705] Litigants could
choose him as a judge of first instance, or they could appeal to him
from the Rector; but they could also, if dissatisfied with his decision,
appeal to the provincial governor.[706] A bishop was immune from charges
which were incumbent on ordinary citizens, that is, trusteeships of all
kinds. He need not accept the post of tutor or curator to young
relations, nor the care of those who were demented;[707] nor could he be
compelled to attend in court as a witness.[708] The ethics of a bishop's
life were scrupulously regulated by law. No woman could be resident in
his house, except a wife, a sister, a daughter, or a first cousin.[709]
He was not permitted to indulge in any gambling game, nor to attend the
spectacles of the circus or the theatre.[710] He also laboured under the
disability of being unable to make a will or execute a deed of gift, so
that his mind should be wholly free from worldly concern.[711] The
lesser clergy, that is, presbyters, deacons, and sub-deacons, were
obliged to live under the same stringent rules as far as applicable to
their rank; and only for the lowest grades of the ministry, viz.,
chanters and readers, was marriage lawful.[712] But even to them second
nuptials were forbidden, under the penalty of forfeiting all claim to
promotion in the service of the Church.[713] The children of illicit
marriages contracted by clerics were ignored by the State so far that
they were not even entitled to the privileges of bastards.[714] Nor
would the Emperor tolerate idle ecclesiastics, but enacted that all
should perform a part methodically in prayers and psalmody for the
benefit of the laity.[715] Women of fifty could be ordained as
deaconesses in the Church, but after some time Justinian reduced the age
to forty.[716] The constitution of monasteries was also minutely
regulated by legislation. Not the senior, but the most suitable person,
was to be elected as abbot or abbess. The segregation of males and
females was to be rigidly carried out, and only one old male servitor
was to be employed in a nunnery.[717] Husband or wife might elect to
lead a religious life without incurring any of the penalties for the
neglect of family duties to which an ordinary citizen was exposed.[718]
By entering a monastery the individual divested himself of all his
worldly goods in favour of the religious community, but not to the
prejudice of wife or children, who were still entitled to their legal
share of the estate.[719] Abduction of a nun, even with her own consent,
rendered not only the ravisher liable to capital punishment, but also
any persons who harboured or aided him in the crime.[720] Alienation of
Church property, as well as of that of monasteries and charitable
foundations, was carefully guarded against, and leases were to be
granted only to the rich.[721] Ruins, however, and surplus treasure in
the form of vessels and vestments might be sold to allow of the funds
being applied to some more useful purpose.[722] But an exception was
made in the case of money being required for the redemption of captives,
"since it was only reasonable to prefer human souls to material
valuables."[723] Some relief with respect to the incidence of the taxes
was also granted to religious bodies in recognition of "the distinction
existing between things divine and human."[724] Clerical criminals were
punished by expulsion from the cloth and surrendered to be dealt with by
the secular arm; in minor cases by relegation to a monastery for three
years, there to be subjected to a stringent discipline.[725]
2. The attitude of Justinian towards those of his subjects who did not
profess the Orthodox faith was one of the most complete intolerance. A
heretic[726] was scarcely fit to live, and it was only strict justice
for him to be "deprived of all earthly advantages, so that he might
languish in misery."[727] Hence the legal enactments against such
religious dissidents subjected them to civil and sometimes to physical
death. They were accordingly excluded from all offices of dignity in the
State, as well as from holding any magistracy "lest they should be
constituted as judges of Christians and bishops."[728] Similarly, the
liberal professions were barred to them, "for fear of their imparting to
others their fatal errors."[729] Wills made by them were not recognized
in law unless in favour of Orthodox children or relatives, and, if they
had none such, then the Treasury instituted itself as their
successor.[730] The testimony of heretics was not received in court
against the Orthodox,[731] and they were forbidden to hold Christian
slaves.[732] Hence, the slaves of heretics possessed the power of
self-emancipation by professing themselves converts to the Orthodox
faith. There were, however, degrees in heresy, and the proscriptive laws
were not pressed with equal force against all. Manichaeans, Pagans,
Montanists and the various sects of Gnostics were the most odious,[733]
whilst Arians, Nestorians, and Monophysites were not pronounced against
by name in the first decade of Justinian's reign.[734] The disciples of
Mani were frankly condemned to death wherever found, "so that their very
name might perish from among the nations."[735] It was a crime to
possess their books and not hand them over to a public official in order
that they should be burnt.[736]
Such were the principles which were laid down in the Byzantine state for
dealing with heretics, but in practice the penalties were not always
strictly enforced, and the law often slumbered unless some special
stimulus set it in motion. A couple of years after Justinian's accession
his zeal for Orthodoxy inflamed him with a desire to encompass a general
conformity in religion throughout the Empire. He issued a decree,
therefore, that all heretics of the flagrant type would lie under the
extreme penalties of the statutes unless they accepted Christianity
within three months.[737] As a result, many votaries of polytheism were
discovered in the capital, and several high officials were dismissed
from their posts.[738] At the same time, a numerous body of inquisitors
pervaded the provinces in order to enforce the edict, whereupon many
conformed through fear, whilst others who were fanatically attached to
their belief fled to distant regions or even committed suicide.[739]
Among the most insensate devotees of the latter class were the
Montanists of Phrygia, who shut themselves up in their churches and then
set fire to the buildings, so that all perished together.[740] Prior to
this decree Jews and Samaritans had enjoyed the ordinary protection of
the law in their own communities, and only suffered the disabilities of
heretics when legally opposed by Catholics; but now the latter sect was
included among those upon whom the State religion was to be enforced. In
their case the measure was carried out with the greatest harshness, and
their synagogues were closed, emptied of their contents, or altogether
ruined.[741] As the Samaritans were very numerous in Palestine, they
soon congregated together, and broke into open revolt. A brigand chief
named Julian was chosen as their King, and under his leadership more
than twenty thousand of the rebels assembled. Doubtless they were very
inefficiently armed and equipped, but they proceeded at once to
retaliate on the Christians by pillaging their property, massacring
those who came in their way, and setting fire to the churches.
Scythopolis and Neapolis were the chief scenes of their depredations. At
the first news of the riots the Emperor became very irate and ordered
the immediate execution of the local governor, but when subsequent
accounts indicated that the movement had attained to the magnitude of a
rebellion, he commanded the military Duke of the province to attack
Julian with all the forces he could muster. After some preliminary
skirmishes a considerable battle was fought, in which the Samaritan King
was slain, and his army routed. The head of Julian, encircled with the
diadem, was sent as a trophy to Constantinople; and the wretched
sectaries were exterminated wherever they could be found among the
mountains in which they had taken refuge. Altogether, twenty thousand
are said to have perished by the sword; the young of both sexes to an
equal number were captured by Arethas, and sold into slavery among the
Persians and Indians; but the majority escaped by abandoning their homes
and offering themselves as subjects to the Shahinshah.[742]
The devastation and depopulation of Palestine, which resulted from this
civil war, had reduced a great part of the country to a desert, but,
nevertheless, Justinian made no sign that the fiscal precept, for which
the province was assessed, would be remitted. Thus the Christians, who
had been despoiled by the rebels, were now presented with demand notes
for a greatly increased amount.[743] Extreme destitution was induced,
and an appeal to the Emperor became a matter of urgent necessity. The
Patriarch of Jerusalem headed the movement, and it was decided that
Saba, an anchorite whose reputation for sanctity was greatest in that
age, should be the bearer of the petition. He was the founder of the
Great Laura in a wilderness near the Jordan, and was now upwards of
ninety years of age. He undertook the mission with alacrity and departed
for the capital (530), where the rumour of his approach preceded him,
and occasioned a great commotion. A fleet of war-vessels, having the
Patriarch Epiphanius and several Illustrious officials on board, sailed
down the Propontis to meet him; and on his arrival at Court Justinian
embraced him with joy and tears. Yet the Emperor was alarmed at the
prospect of a reduction of the revenue, and attempted a diversion by
offering the saint a large sum for the monasteries in which he was
interested. But Saba was immovable and imperturbably pressed his
petition for five concessions, remission of taxes, rebuilding and
subsidies for ruined churches, the foundation of a hospital at
Jerusalem, the completion of a church to the Virgin in that city, and
the erection of a fort in the desert to protect his monasteries from the
Saracens. Finally Justinian yielded at every point, and the Holy City
was enriched with an infirmary to receive two hundred sick and a
magnificent church to the Theotokos, which it took twelve years to
build, as a part of the tangible outcome of the mission. Saba was also
brought into the presence of the Empress, who saluted him with the
deepest reverence and solicited him to pray for her that she might have
a son. But to this request he replied simply, "God save the glory of
your Empire," and left her in a very tristful mood. Her depression being
noticed, some of the ecclesiastics questioned him, to whom he explained,
"Believe me, Fathers, God does not will that there should be any issue
of her womb, lest he should vex the Church worse than Anastasius."[744]
As for the Samaritans, those who survived the blast of persecution,
either by pretended conformity or temporary seclusion, formed a
considerable multitude. As soon as the penal laws became dormant, they
crept out of their hiding places and gradually settled down in their old
haunts, so that after the lapse of a decade they again appeared as a
conspicuous section of the Palestinian population. In 542 Justinian
thought it wise to conciliate them by a formal amnesty, and he published
an Act by which they were virtually restored to all their civic
privileges.[745] Yet fourteen years later, they fomented an insurrection
at Caesarea in conjunction with some Jews, murdered the Proconsul, and
the same scenes of violence against the Christians and their churches
were repeated.[746] A similar wave of oppression, though probably only
of local origin, was doubtless the cause of this uprising, but the
sedition was soon quelled by a special commissioner, who was sent down
from the capital and punished the ringleaders by impalement,
decapitation, mutilation, or confiscation of property, according to the
degrees of guilt.[747] Early in the next reign, however, their
turbulence appeared to be so incurable as to call for a re-enactment of
almost all the disabilities under which they lay after Justinian's first
decree against them.[748]
It was, of course, a foregone conclusion that in Africa and Italy after
the conquest the Arians should be a proscribed sect. No sooner had the
Vandal Kingdom passed under the Byzantine rule than the same measure was
meted out to the previously dominant religionists, as the African
Catholics had generally received at their hands under Genseric and most
of his successors. Dispossessed of all their churches and divested of
civil rights, they were directed by the Emperor's edict to "consider
themselves as humanely treated in being suffered to live at all."[749]
In Italy the revulsion was less decided as, owing to the tolerant policy
of Theodoric, the Orthodox Church in that country had not been
disturbed. No special legislation, therefore, is extant, and it appears
that the Italian Arians were only despoiled on occasion under some
specious pretence in order that their riches might go to swell the
treasury, as frequently happened in the case of their conquerors of the
East.[750] Although Jews were held in abhorrence by the Emperor and his
Catholic subjects, they were allowed to adhere to their traditional
faith within certain limits.[751] Thus such a blasphemous departure from
the creed of the State as denial of resurrection and judgment, or the
creation of angels, was not permitted to them; and they were compelled
to use a version of the Old Testament according to the Septuagint in
Greek or Latin, and not any Hebrew text of their own.[752] In one
instance, however, a community of Jews at Borium in North Africa were
forced to become Christians; and their synagogue, which they declared to
have been built by Solomon, was accordingly transformed into a
church.[753]
3. Having the power of compulsion in his hands, the efforts of Justinian
to convert heathens to Christianity are not easily to be distinguished
from persecution. As a rule his chief argument was the sword or the
stake, but, as difficulties sometimes stood in the way of applying that
mode of persuasion, he was obliged occasionally to have recourse to
milder methods. The only notable instance, however, is that in which he
appointed John, the Monophysite Bishop of Ephesus, to preach the Gospel
in the wilds of Caria, Asia, Phrygia, and Lydia. It seems that in those
provinces there were many small communities interspersed among rugged
and barely accessible mountain tracts, who were still addicted to some
primitive form of idolatry. Some peculiar fitness recommended the
heretic prelate to the Emperor for this arduous task; and doubtless it
was not intended that the rude proselytes should imbibe any nice
theological distinctions. According to the account of the missionary
himself his success was very great, and seventy thousand persons were
baptized, for whom a sufficient number of churches and monasteries were
built in the sequestered districts which they inhabited.[754] It is
probable that this mission conduced to the spread of civilization, and
that the regions dealt with were opened by various public works to a
freer intercourse with the more advanced dwellers in the plains. Two
other examples of Justinian's propagation of the Gospel are rather to be
classed as military subjugation and enforced conversion. On the
outskirts of the Empire between Armenia and the Caucasus lived a number
of predacious tribes, offshoots of a common stock, called the Tzani.
Their homes were situated in mountain fastnesses hemmed in by dense
forests, and at an elevation which rendered agriculture impossible.
Their sustenance was derived from cattle, and from incursions for the
sake of rapine into the surrounding districts. A punitive expedition,
however, was undertaken by the Byzantine soldiery, who penetrated to
their retreats, and reduced them to submission. The permanency of the
conquest was then assured by the clearing of avenues for facile access
and by the building of forts. Instruction in Christianity naturally
followed, and the wild men, who had previously deified groves and birds,
were taught to resort to churches which were erected for their
accommodation.[755] Near the eastern extremity of the new Praefecture of
Africa a numerous people existed who maintained a magnificent temple
served by a throng of hierodules, in which the divinity claimed by
Alexander was still adored in conjunction with that of Jupiter Ammon. By
a mandate of the Emperor this obsolete religion was abolished, and
Christian worship in a church dedicated to the Virgin was substituted
for the Pagan rites previously held in honour there.[756]
It is uncertain whether the arrival of barbarian princes at
Constantinople, petitioning to be baptized under Imperial patronage, is
to be attributed to missionary activity, to the prestige of the Empire,
or to accidental persuasion by Christian devotees.[757] From whatever
cause, however, such occurrences were not uncommon, and two further
instances may be noticed.[758] In 527 a king of the Herules presented
himself at the Court, with a numerous retinue, and begged to be made a
Christian. All were baptized, Justinian himself acting as godfather to
the King, whom he dismissed with handsome presents, and an intimation
that, for the future, he should rely on him as an ally.[759] A similar
case happened shortly afterwards, which was attended with unfortunate
consequences for the royal neophyte, who was a Hunnish chief reigning in
the vicinity of Bosporus. On his return, assuming too hastily that all
his subjects were ready to follow his example, he seized on the idols of
the tribe, which were cast in silver and electron,[760] and transmuted
them into coined money. The native priests, however, were indignant at
this act, and, having transferred their allegiance to his brother,
quickly procured his assassination. The new ruler then marched against
Bosporus, and massacred a small Byzantine force which was habitually
stationed there in order to guard the interests of trade with the Huns.
This outrage necessitated the despatch of a punitive force across the
Euxine, but the barbarians contrived a hasty disappearance without
risking a battle, and thereafter the peace of the region remained
unmolested.[761] With these cases may be classed that of the Abasgi, who
dwelt beyond Lazica on the north-east of the Euxine. They worshipped
woods and groves, but under Justinian received an impulse which caused
them to embrace Christianity. They were ruled by a dual kingship, the
associates in which made a practice of seizing and castrating all
handsome boys, whom they sold in great numbers within the Empire. They
lived in dread, however, of the Roman power, and hence slew the fathers
of such boys, lest they should be moved to appeal to the Emperor against
their tyranny. But when a deputation of the Abasgi appeared at the
Byzantine Court to solicit that a bishop should be sent to them,
Justinian not only granted their petition, but published and enforced an
edict that no more eunuchs should be made in that country. He also built
a church to the Virgin among them, so that they should be permanently
retained in their attachment to the rites of their new faith.[762]
4. As a doctor of theology Justinian believed himself to be the superior
of any of the prelates of the Church who lived in his time.[763] He
pored over the ponderous tomes of the Fathers whose subtle disquisitions
on the divine nature had inspired the decrees of the four great
Councils, and assumed the rôle of a priestly expositor of the Catholic
faith. As his age advanced, his pious ardour increased, and he pursued
his studies far into the night, closeted with venerable ecclesiastics in
his library, a circumstance which caused him to incur some contempt
among the more active political and military spirits.[764] Thus, when
the plot, in which Artabanes was involved, was organized, the
conspirators based their hopes of success chiefly on the facility with
which he might be surprised during such nocturnal vigils, bereft of
guards, who had been dismissed lest they should disturb his devout
researches.[765] Several of his theological treatises have come down to
us, which, though not voluminous, might have sufficed to give him a
respectable rank among ecclesiastical authors, had not his royal
position rendered him independent of such distinction. As a specimen of
the intellectual activities of an age, in which philosophy and science
had been abandoned as worthless pursuits, it may be interesting to quote
two passages from Justinian's writings, wherein damnable heresy may be
seen opposed to the inestimable conceptions of orthodoxy. In the first
he exposes the pernicious errors of Origen, in order that they may be
anathematized by an episcopal council; and in the second he defines the
true views which must be held as to the ineffable conjunction of the two
natures in the Saviour. The Palestinian monks, who cherished the
Alexandrian Father, he urges, were engaged in ruining souls by infusing
into them ideas assimilated to those of Pythagoras, Plato, and Plotinus,
thus perverting them towards the tenets of Paganism and
Manichaeanism.[766]
"... They say," expounds Justinian, "that there were originally an
innumerable host of minds united in contemplation and love of God. But,
being subdued by satiety, their devotion cooled, and hence they became
associated with bodies and names of a higher or lower nature in
proportion to the degree of their falling off. Those who were least
deteriorated passed into the sun, moon, and stars; a lower class into
gross bodies like our own; whilst those affected with the greatest
perversity coalesced with the frigid and fuliginous matter of which
demons are constituted. One only remained unchanged in love and
contemplation of the Deity, and that one was Christ. But all bodies are
liable to perish utterly; and he, becoming at once God and man, first
threw off his body; and all bodies will ultimately do likewise,
returning into unity and again becoming minds. Hence impious men and
demons will at last attain to the same celestial state as the divine
and saintly. Thus Christ differs in no manner from other living beings.
But Pythagoras said that unity was the beginning of all things; and
Plato taught similarly, and asserted that souls were sent into bodies
as a punishment. Wherefore he called the body a sepulchre and a chain,
as being that wherein the soul was buried and bound. And the soul of a
philosopher which pollutes itself with paederasty and iniquity performs
a triple circuit of chastisement in a millennium, and in the thousandth
year becomes winged and takes its flight.... Therefore I exhort you,
holy fathers, to examine and condemn in general synod all who think
like Origen."
The next extract I draw from his lengthy exposition of the principles of
Catholicism with a view to the condemnation of the Three Chapters. In
this document he relies mainly on the interpretation of Scripture by
Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and
Gregory of Nyssa[767]:
"... And when we say that Christ is God, we do not deny him to be man;
and when we say that he is man we do not deny him to be God. For should
he be only God, how should he suffer, be crucified, and die? For such
is alien to God. Wherefore when we say that Christ is composed of both
natures, divine and human, we introduce no confusion in the union, but
in the two natures we confess Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. When we
say that there is a composition, we must allow there to be parts in the
whole, and the whole to consist in its parts. The divine nature is not
transmuted into the human, nor the human into the divine. Rather is it
to be understood that, each nature abiding within its own limits and
faculties, a union has been made according to the substance. The union
according to the substance signifies that God the Word, that is, one
substance of the three substances of the Deity, was not united to a
previously formed human body, but created for Himself in the womb of
the Holy Virgin from her substance the living flesh, which is human
nature."
He then drew up a number of canons against the Three Chapters and
heretics generally, to which he appended a diffuse argument to prove the
necessity for their being anathematized. These canons are virtually the
same as the fourteen adopted by the Fifth Oecumenical Council.[768]
[625] The gist of the Henoticon was that all being devoted adherents of
the Nicene Council, they repudiated anything which was in conflict with
its decisions, whether promulgated "at Chalcedon or elsewhere";
Evagrius, iii, 14.
[626] Concil. (Labbe, Mansi, 1759, etc.), vii, 1053; Theophanes, an.
5980.
[627] The correspondence between Justin and Justinian and the Holy See
of Rome (Baronius, Concil., Migne) has lately been re-edited in Script.
Eccles. Lat., Vienna, 1895, xxxv, from the Avellana Collection.
[628] John Ephes. Comm. de Beat. Or. (Laud, etc.), pp. 127, 154.
[629] Concil., viii, 818 _et seq._ The _Collatio_ consisted of five or
six bishops of each side. They were convened by Strategius, Count of the
Sacred Largesses, who said they were called together, not under Imperial
compulsion, but as in response to a "paternal and priestly exhortation."
Afterwards they were met by Justinian, who invited them into Hormisdas,
where he addressed them "with Davidian kindness, Mosaic patience, and
Apostolic clemency."
[630] Cod. I, i, 6; cf. Facundus Defens, i, 1.
[631] Abrogated by Council of 692, can. 81. At this time (533) J.
addressed several letters to the Church and the public laying down the
lines of Orthodoxy (Cod. I, i, 5-8).
[632] Marcel. Com., an. 535; Theophanes, an. 6029, etc.
[633] Zachariah Myt., ix, 16, 19; letters passed between Anthimus and
the Monophysite leaders, in which he accepted the Henoticon, "enacted to
annul the Council of Chalcedon and the impious Tome of Leo" (_ibid._,
21-26). The latter was the document which decided the rule of faith at
Chalcedon. In it Pope Leo I demonstrated the two natures of Jesus from
the Gospels. Thus when he performed miracles he called upon his divine
nature, but when he felt human passions, hunger, thirst, sorrow, etc.,
he allowed himself to be influenced by his human nature (Concil., v,
1359; Evagrius, ii, 18). The confession of Eutyches, the father of the
Monophysites, was "I acknowledge that our Lord originated from two
natures, but after the union I confess only one nature" (_ibid._, i. 9);
cf. Liberatus, Brev., 21.
[634] Zachariah Myt.; Lib. Pontif., Agapetus, etc.
[635] Theophanes, an. 6029.
[636] Liberatus, 21; Lib. Pontif., _loc. cit._, J. also threatened at
first, whereupon the Pope compared him to Diocletian. Victor Ton. (an.
540) says that Agapetus even excommunicated Theodora.
[637] John Ephes. Comm., pp. 157, 247.
[638] Lib. Pontif., Boniface II.
[639] Victor Ton., an. 536; Liberatus, 22.
[640] According to Liberatus Antonina forced him to write the aforesaid
letters from Rome; but I cannot help thinking that Theodora extracted
something better from him than mere professions before she despatched
him to the West with such a powerful instrument in his hands.
[641] Victor Ton., an. 536; Liberatus, 22.
[642] Lib. Pontif., Silverius.
[643] Liberatus, 22; Lib. Pontif., Silverius.
[644] Liberatus, 22.
[645] Lib. Pontif., Silverius.
[646] Lib. Pontif., Vigilius. She wanted him to restore Anthimus, but he
said he was idiotic when he made such promises, etc.; cf. Victor Ton.,
and Liberatus, _loc. cit._
[647] Concil., ix, pp. 35, 38.
[648] Lib. Pontif., Silverius; Vigilius.
[649] Liberatus, 22; Lib. Pontif., Silverius.
[650] See p. 611.
[651] Concil., viii, 885. The most determined propagandist was the monk
Zooras. His life in John Eph., Com., p. 11. "What can I do with a
truculent man, who fears no one?" said Justinian, when asked to restrain
him.
[652] Concil., viii, 873 _et seq._; Nov. xlii.
[653] John Eph., Com., p. 157 _et seq._ Ephraim, who had been Count of
the East, and had been raised to the Patriarchate by a popular vote, was
the great persecutor; _ibid._, pp. 204-207; cf. Evagrius, iv. 6.
[654] When Severus was banished from Antioch and Julian from
Halicarnassus, on the accession of Justin, they fled to Alexandria, and
there Julian began to inculcate the heresy that the body of Jesus was
incorruptible. He was opposed by Severus, and shortly the Alexandrians
were divided into two parties, the Corruptibles and Incorruptibles. The
latter were in a great majority, and now constituted the Gaianites.
Zachariah Myt., ix, 9-13; Liberatus, 19, 20.
[655] _Ibid._ The soldiers were beaten, but Narses "won by fire where
iron could not," that is, he burnt them out.
[656] John Eph., Com., pp. 14, 114 _et seq._; Victor Ton., an. 540, etc.
[657] John Eph. Com., pp. 11, 66, 154, etc. It was opposite Blachernae.
She also had a refuge for proscribed Monophysites in the island of
Chios; _ibid._ Zooras was at first head of the monastery at Sycae, but
he ended his days at Dercos.
[658] Liberatus, 23; Procopius, Anec., 27.
[659] Liberatus, 23; Evagrius, iv, 38.
[660] Liberatus, 23.
[661] The N. L. was founded by sixty rebels against the rule of Saba;
Cyril Scythop, St. Saba, 36.
[662] Concil., ix, 487, 395; Cedrenus, i, p. 660 _et seq._ (_c._ 544).
After this J. wrote a bulky pamphlet against Origen (Jn. Migne, S. G.,
lxxxvi). Some of the notions of Origen condemned were, that human souls
pre-existed as holy spirits; that at the resurrection human bodies will
be globular; that the sun, moon, and stars, etc., are animated; that
Jesus will be crucified again for devils; that punishment in hell will
not be eternal, etc. It is scarcely certain that the council was held.
[663] Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and Ibas. An open letter of I.
spoke of the "blessed Theodore," and said that Cyril, Patr. of Alex.,
arrived first at the Council of Ephesus (431), and "filled their ears
with poison and blinded their eyes." Hence Nestorius was condemned
without "judgment or question." This document was read and passed at
Chalcedon; Concil., vii, 242; xi, 297; cf. Evagrius, ii, 18.
[664] Liberatus (24) says he was an Acephalus, the only authority.
[665] Facundus, Defens., ii, 3; iv, 4.
[666] Pope Vigilius himself confesses that he did not understand Greek;
Concil., ix, 98.
[667] Facundus, Contr. Mocianum; Liberatus, 24, etc.
[668] Lib. Pontif., Vigilius. "If you fail," said she to the officer,
"I'll flay you alive." I have no doubt she held this sort of language to
her servants; but the Lib. Pontif. is a very poor authority.
[669] _Ibid._
[670] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 15; Marcel. Com., an. 547; Jn.
Malala, p. 483. See p. 632.
[671] Jn. Malala, p. 483, Theophanes, an. 6039.
[672] Facundus, Contr. Moc.; extracts in Concil., ix, 181.
[673] Victor Ton., ann. 549, 550. The African bishops excommunicated the
Pope.
[674] Facundus, _op. cit._ Fulgentius Fer., Epist. 6 (Migne, S. L.,
lxvii) etc.
[675] Jn. Malala, p. 484; Theophanes, an. 6039.
[676] Chron. Paschal., an. 552 (also Concil., etc.).
[677] Vigilius is thought to have been a very strong man as he is said
to have killed a deacon, who taunted him, with a blow of a book; Lib.
Pontif.
[678] Epist. Legat. Franc., Concil., ix, 151 (Baronius and Migne, also);
Theophanes, an. 6039, etc.
[679] Concil., ix, 50, etc.
[680] Concil., ix, 61 _et seq._ (also in Col. Avellana). According to
Lib. Pontif. he was seized in St. Euphemia and dragged round CP. till
evening, with a rope round his neck, by order of Theodora—four years
after she was dead!
[681] Concil., ix, 157 _et seq._; Evagrius, iv, 38.
[682] Concil., ix, 191 _et seq._
[683] _Ibid._, 61 _et seq._ (and Col. Avel.).
[684] Concil., ix, 103. Seventeen bishops, Pelagius, and two others
signed it.
[685] _Ibid._, 181.
[686] _Ibid._, 367.
[687] _Ibid._, 376. Origen was practically passed over; can. 16.
[688] Victor Ton., an. 553, etc. He was one of them. This chronicler is
generally wrong in his dates.
[689] Concil. ix, 457. He paved the way by a letter to the new Patriarch
of CP., Eutychius; _ibid._, 413.
[690] Lib. Pontif.; Marcel. Com., an. 554.
[691] Victor Ton., an. 558; Facundus, Ep. Fid. Cath.
[692] Lib. Pontif., Pelagius; Marcel. Com., an. 554. There was a popular
rumour that he had murdered Vigilius.
[693] Epist. 6 (Migne, S. L., lxix, 391).
[694] See his Epistles; Hefele, Hist. Councils, iv, 343, etc., for
details of the schism. According to Liberatus (24) Theodore Ascidas gave
it as his confidential opinion that he and Pelagius ought to have been
burnt alive for the trouble they had brought into the Church over Origen
and the Three Chapters.
[695] Two lives of him in John Eph., Com., pp. 160, 206. A modern life
by Kleyn, Leyd., 1882.
[696] The particulars in John Eph., Hist. (Smith), p. 250 _et seq._
[697] John Eph., Com., pp. 162, 206. In the Semitic, Arethas =
Harith-ibn-Gabbala. Duchesne has treated of Christian missions to the
south of the Empire at some length; Mis. chrét. au sud de l'emp. rom.,
1896.
[698] She died of cancer of the breast, according to Vict. Ton. (an.
549), who regarded the disease as a penalty of her heretical impiety.
[699] Cod., I, iii, 42; Nov. vi, pf., etc.
[700] Cod., I, iii, 42; Nov. vi, 1; cxxiii, 1; cxxxvii, 2.
[701] Cod., I, iv, 26.
[702] _Ibid._, 25.
[703] _Ibid._, 22.
[704] _Ibid._, iii, 46, 49.
[705] _Ibid._, ii, 23; Nov. cxxxi, 6; v, ix; cf. Procopius, Anec., 28.
[706] Cod., I, iv, 8; Nov. cxxiii, 21.
[707] Cod., I, iii, 52; iv, 27; Nov. cxxiii, 5. He generally supervised
their appointment.
[708] _Ibid._, iii, 7; Nov. cxxiii, 7.
[709] Cod., I, iii, 19; Nov. xxii, 42; v, 6.
[710] Cod., I, iii, 17; iv, 34; Nov. cxxiii, 10.
[711] Cod., I, iii, 42.
[712] _Ibid._, 45; Nov. xxii, 42, etc.
[713] Nov. xxii, 42.
[714] Cod., I, iii, 45.
[715] _Ibid._, 42.
[716] _Ibid._, 9; Nov. vi, 6; cxxiii, 13.
[717] Cod., I, iii, 44; Nov. v; cxxiii; cxxxiii.
[718] Cod., I, ii, 13; Nov. v, 5; cxxiii, 38.
[719] Nov. cxxiii, 38; Cod., I, iii, 56.
[720] _Ibid._, 54; Nov. cxxiii, 43.
[721] Cod., I, ii, 24; Nov. cxx, 6, 7, etc.
[722] Nov. cxx, 1, 10, etc.
[723] Cod., I, ii, 21.
[724] _Ibid._, 22.
[725] Nov. cxxiii, 20. As Justinian's laws relating to religion are very
bulky, I merely give samples to show their general tendency.
[726] A heretic is defined as anyone not being an Orthodox churchman;
Cod., I, v, 12, 18.
[727] Cod., I, xi, 10.
[728] _Ibid._, v, 12.
[729] _Ibid._
[730] _Ibid._, 13, 18, 19; Nov. cv, 3.
[731] Cod., I, v, 21.
[732] _Ibid._, iii, 56; vi, 3.
[733] _Ibid._, v, 11, 18, 21, etc.
[734] Nov. cix. By this law heretic wives are deprived of the right to
recover their dowry, etc.
[735] Cod., I, v, 12, 16, etc.
[736] Cod., I, v, 12, 16, etc.
[737] Jn. Malala, p. 449; Theophanes, an. 6022; cf. Cod., I, i, 5.
[738] _Ibid._
[739] Procopius, Anecd., 11.
[740] _Ibid._
[741] Cod., I, v, 17.
[742] Jn. Malala, p. 445; Procopius, Anecd., 11.
[743] Jn. Malala, p. 445; Procopius, Anecd., 11.
[744] Cyril Scythop., St. Saba, 70-72. Saba prophesies that J. will
conquer Rome and Africa, which, if the biographer can be relied on,
indicates that as early as 530 the idea of recovering the Western Empire
was being mooted.
[745] Nov. cxxix.
[746] Jn. Malala, p. 487.
[747] Jn. Malala, p. 487.
[748] Nov. cxliv.
[749] Nov. xxxvii; Procopius, Anecd., 18.
[750] Agnellus, Lib. Pontif., Agnellus, 2; Procopius, Anecd., 11. At
Ravenna all the Gothic churches, with their contents, were handed over
to the Catholics. Presumably there were very few Arian congregations
left in Italy. The Exocionite Arians at CP. (Goths) were always
respected; Cod., I, v, 12; Jn. Malala, p. 428.
[751] Cod., I, ix; x.
[752] Nov. cxlvi.
[753] Procopius, De Aedif., vi, 2. It is only fair to note that
Justinian, for the most part, only re-enacted or confirmed laws
formulated by his predecessors, beginning with Constantine; but he
sometimes enforced them more zealously.
[754] John Ephes., Hist. (Smith), pp. 159, 229 _et seq._
[755] Procopius, De Aedif., iii, 6. Sittas was the general. Cf. Nov. i,
pf.
[756] Procopius, De Aedif., vi, 2.
[757] As an illustration of the way in which Christianity was spread
unofficially, through captives carried off by the barbarians, etc., see
Zachariah Myt., xii, 7.
[758] See p. 312.
[759] Jn. Malala, p. 427; Theophanes, an. 6020.
[760] An alloy of gold and silver; Instit., ii, 1.
[761] Jn. Malala, p. 431; Theophanes, an. 6020.
[762] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iv, 3.
[763] John Ephes., Hist. (Com.), p. 249. In 543 he brought a party of
grammarians, advocates, ship-masters, and monks from Alexandria, and
held _séances_ in which he argued to convert them from the Egyptian
Monophysitism; "for," says the historian, "he thought none of the
bishops or others equal to him in the art of argument."
[764] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 32.
[765] See p. 622.
[766] Cedrenus, i, p. 660 _et seq._
[767] Chron. Paschal., an. 552.
[768] Three considerable monographs treat of religion in the sixth
century: Duchesne, Vigile et Pelage (Rev. d. quest. hist., 1884);
Knecht, Die Relig. Polit. Kais. Justin., Würz., 1896; and Hutton, The
Church in the Sixth Cent., Lond., 1897. Gasquet's De l'autor. impér. en
mat. relig. à Byzance, Paris, 1879, also contains matter germane to the
subject.