An
Acoemete monk took charge of the notification and fastened it to the
mantle of Acacius during service.
Acoemete monk took charge of the notification and fastened it to the
mantle of Acacius during service.
Cambridge Medieval History - v1 - Christian Roman Empire and Teutonic Kingdoms
Those who
said that further definitions were unnecessary, that the doctrines of
Cyril and of Leo were in full accord, had some show of reason on their
side. But the need for further definition was urged, and nearly led to
a collapse of the whole Council. A general agreement was obtained
without great difficulty. The creeds of Nicaea and of Constantinople,
the letters of Cyril to Nestorius and to John of Antioch, and finally the
Tome of Leo, were read and approved. It was this last document
that the Roman delegates regarded as sufficient to put a stop to all
further controversy. It has always remained a classical monument in
the history of Christology, and has been far more widely read and
studied than the declaration finally made at Chalcedon. Perhaps it
seemed insufficient to some because the word €OTókos was not contained
in it, though the idea implied in that word is set forth in unmistakable
terms. And again, though very many present had subscribed to the
Tome, it was not unnatural that in many quarters there should be a re-
luctance to accept as possessing peculiar authority a document emanating
from a Western source. Anatolius and certain other bishops accordingly
drew up a formula which was presented to the Council. But this only
roused fierce opposition from the Roman legates, and even to a threat
CH. XVII.
## p. 510 (#540) ############################################
510
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
that they would withdraw altogether, and cause a new Council to be
assembled in Italy.
The obnoxious creed has not come down to us, but we gather that
it contained the expression : Christ is of two natures (ex dúo púoewv)
instead of the phrase in two natures (év dúo púbeo. v). Those who
would regard the theological difference as rooted in philosophical
distinction may suggest a rational apprehension in the minds of Leo
and his supporters, that whatever might be the principle of union or
separation in divine and human nature, it could not, as Eutyches
supposed, be dependent on a merely temporal relation.
It would, of course, have been fatal to the policy of the Emperor and
Empress if Rome had seceded at this juncture. As a compromise,
Anatolius and a chosen representative committee of bishops were bidden
to retire into the oratory of St Euphemia and prepare a new creed.
The document, when produced, proved to be based on that of Leo. But
it contained on the one side the word cotókos, and on the other—there
can hardly be any doubt, in spite of what seem to be clerical errors-the
phrase έν δύο φύσεσιν.
After the question of the Faith had been settled, the Emperor came
himself to the Council and congratulated the bishops on the success of
their labours in the cause of unity and truth. Sundry matters of local
yet not unimportant interest were transacted in the last sessions. Thus
Ibas and Theodoret were reinstated in their sees. In the case of
Theodoret, a natural reluctance to anathematise the memory of his
quondam friend Nestorius was overcome by threats. The only con-
ceivable excuse is that the anathema may have been drifting into a
mere façon de parler, and that, as shewn above, Nestorius had himself
generously expressed a wish that his own reputation might not be
preferred to the cause of truth.
Finally, a list of canons, thirty in number, were drawn up, mostly on
points of less burning interest, and the imperial authorities undertook
to add the force of the secular arm to the decrees of the Council. But
before the members dispersed, a stormy discussion arose which might
seem to give the lie to the Emperor's pious hopes, especially as it was
but the beginning of a fresh breach. This was the dispute as to
Canon xxvIII. It is certain, from the remonstrance made by the Roman
delegates, that neither they nor the imperial Commissioners had been
present when the one in question was put to the vote; also that a com-
paratively small number of bishops had subscribed it. The canon is so
important that it had better be given in fulla:
“Following in all things the decisions of the holy Fathers and
acknowledging the canon, which has just been read, of the One Hundred
and Fifty Bishops beloved-of-God (who assembled in the Imperial city
of Constantinople, which is New Rome, in the time of the Emperor
1 Nearly Dr Percival's translation, ap. The Seven Oecumenical Councils.
## p. 511 (#541) ############################################
Objections to Canon XXVIII
511
Theodosius of happy memory), we also do enact and decree the same
things concerning the privileges of the most holy Church of Constanti-
nople, which is New Rome. For the Fathers rightly granted privileges
to the throne of Old Rome, because it was the imperial city. And the
One Hundred and Fifty most religious bishops, actuated by the same
consideration, gave equal privileges (ioa mpeo Beia) to the most holy
throne of New Rome, justly judging that the city which is honoured with
the Sovereignty and the Senate, and enjoys equal privileges with the old
imperial Rome, should in ecclesiastical matters also be magnified as
she is, and rank next after her; so that in the Pontic, the Asian, and the
Thracian Dioceses, the metropolitans only and such bishops also of the
Dioceses aforesaid as are among the barbarians, should be ordained by
the aforesaid most holy throne of the most holy Church of Constanti-
nople; every metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses, together with the
bishops of his province, ordaining his own provincial bishops, as has
been declared by the divine canons; but that, as has been above said, the
metropolitans of the aforesaid Dioceses should be ordained by the arch-
bishop of Constantinople, after the proper elections have been held
according to custom and have been reported to him. ”
It is hardly necessary to say that all the earlier or theoretical part of
this document clashed entirely with Leo's views as to the supremacy of
Rome and the relations of Church and State, while the latter or practical
part seemed to give dangerously wide powers to the see of New Rome.
When the Roman delegates objected, they were allowed a hearing, but
reminded that it was their own fault that they had not been present
when the canon was passed. They lodged a formal protest, supported
by a phrase which had been interpolated into the Nicene canons. The
result was nugatory. The canon was maintained. Leo supported the
action of his delegates, or rather, they had rightly gauged his mind.
A long and stormy correspondence which he kept up with Marcian,
Pulcheria and Anatolius, led to no final settlement. Leo acknowledged
the validity of what had been done at Chalcedon with regard to the
Faith, but held out tenaciously against the claims of the Byzantine see.
There seems a touch of unconscious irony in his championship of the
ancient rights of Alexandria and of Antioch, as well as in his incul-
cations on Anatolius to practise the virtue of humility. He only
became reconciled to Anatolius three years later, after receiving from
him a very apologetic letter, laying the blame on the Byzantine clergy,
and stating that the whole case had been reserved for Leo's decision.
But Anatolius could not bind the Eastern churches. Canon XXVIII
continued to be accepted by the East, though unrecognised by the West.
We may ask which cause, or which party, profited by the Council
of Chalcedon. The Papacy had put forth great claims, and in part
had realised them, yet it seemed at the last to have been overreached
by the East. A certain uniformity of belief had been imposed on a
CH. XVII.
## p. 512 (#542) ############################################
512
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
great part of the Christian world, but this belief was not supposed to
add anything to the authoritative declarations of former councils, and so
far as it wore any semblance of novelty, it served only to embitter
party strife in the regions that most required pacification. The most
active and ambitious disturber of the peace had been got rid of, but only
with the result that his see had become the prey of hostile factions.
There was some gain to the far East, in the restoration of learned and
comparatively moderate men, like Theodoret and Ibas; but they had
still to encounter active opposition. Perhaps the Emperor was the chief
gainer; but he had overstrained his authority. The best that can be
said for the Council is that things might have been worse if no council
had met.
We may take briefly, as Epilogue to the Council of Chalcedon, the
disturbances and insurrections consequent on the attempts to enforce its
decisions: (a) in Palestine; (6) in Egypt; (c) in Provinces further to the
East.
(a) Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, had played a sorry part in the
whole business. It is not surprising that when he returned, pardoned
and rehabilitated, to his bishopric, his flock was not unanimous in
welcoming him back. His opponents, the most vigorous of whom came
from the monastic bodies, set up in opposition to him a certain
Theodosius, a monk who had been at Chalcedon and who had re-
turned full of wrath and of determination to resist the new decisions.
Juvenal fled back to Constantinople, while Theodosius acted as patriarch,
appointing bishops of Monophysite views, and bidding defiance to im-
perial as well as to conciliar authority. The recalcitrant monks had the
sympathy, if not the active assistance, of the ex-Empress Eudocia, who
was still residing in Palestine. Pope Leo, it need scarcely be said, was
vigorous with his pen on the other side. Marcian determined on armed
intervention. Forces were sent under the count Dorotheus, and Juvenal
was reinstated. Theodosius was brought prisoner to Constantinople,
.
and liberated during the next reign. The undercurrent of Mono-
physitism was, however, only covered for a time, not permanently
checked.
(6) In Alexandria, as might be expected, the resistance was more
prolonged and more serious. Whatever the faults of Dioscorus, he still
had partisans among the monks and the common people. His successor
Proterius was chosen, we are told, by the nobiles civitatis, and aristocratic
management did not always succeed in Alexandria. Here again recourse
was had to military force. Proterius had not the art of making himself
popular; and when Dioscorus died at Gangra, his place of banishment,
à clever schemer came to the fore. This was Timothy, a Teuton whose
tribal name, the Herul, was appropriately twisted into Aelurus, the Cat.
He is said to have gone by night to the bedsides of those whom he
wished to persuade and to have told them, as they lay between sleep and
## p. 513 (#543) ############################################
Effects in Egypt and Syria
513
his see.
waking, that he was an angel, sent to bid them provide themselves with
a bishop and, in particular, to choose Timothy. On the death of
Marcian, he obtained his desire and was chosen bishop by the people,
and consecrated in the great church of the Caesarium, once the scene of
the murder of Hypatia. A fate very much like that of Hypatia befel
the bishop Proterius, whose mangled body was dragged through the
streets and then committed to the flames. How far the actual murder
was instigated by Timothy it is impossible to say. The Emperor Leo,
who had succeeded Marcian in 457, could not, of course, sanction the
result of such proceedings. One scheme which suggested itself was the
calling of a new Council. Any notion of the kind was, however, frustrated
by Leo of Rome, who probably thought that an assembly held in the
East at that juncture might prove even more antagonistic to Roman
authority than the Council of Chalcedon. Accordingly, by his advice,
the Emperor sent round circular letters to a large number of bishops
and ascetics (Simeon Stylites had a copy) asking for their opinion and
advice. The result was a general condemnation of Timothy Aelurus,
and a confirmation of the Chalcedonian decrees. One bishop declared
against Chalcedon, but even he was opposed to Timothy. Aelurus was
accordingly driven out and succeeded by another Timothy, called
Salophaciolus. But Aelurus maintained his influence, and on the wave
of Monophysite reaction under the pretender Basiliscus he returned to
From about this time we may date the practical nullity of the
orthodox Alexandrian patriarchate and the rise of the Coptic Church.
But, as is seen by the whole course of events from the days of Theophilus
and earlier, the causes of disruption were not entirely due to the
difference between en and év. Alexandria itself might be Greek and
cosmopolitan, but Egypt had a peculiar and national character, which
was chiefly evident in its language and its institutions, particularly its
monasticism. If it seems surprising that violent ecclesiastical rivalries
and the turbulence of the most unrestrained city mob to be found in all
history should have led to the growth of a church which, with all its
faults, has maintained itself ever since in the affections of the common
people, the clue is to be found in the separation of Greek and Egyptian
elements, which were incapable of a satisfactory and wholesome com-
bination. But the separation naturally led in time to the fall of the
Roman power in the chief seat of Hellenic civilisation in the East.
(c) In the East, on the other hand, in Syria and Mesopotamia,
there was less opposition to the Chalcedonian settlement, but a few years
later a latent discontent broke into revolt. Domnus, bishop of Antioch,
had played an undignified and unhappy part in the controversy. Though
a friend of Theodoret and of Ibas, and an Antiochene in theology, he
had been forced to subscribe the decisions of the Robber Council, and
even after that humiliation had been deprived of his see.
therefore pardoned at Chalcedon, but he was pensioned, not restored
33
a
He was
C. IED. B. v0L. I. CH. XVII.
## p. 514 (#544) ############################################
514
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century [435–461
to office. His successor Maximus had been practically appointed by
Anatolius of Constantinople. Leo thought best to confirm the appoint-
ment, and Maximus justified the hopes placed in him by proclaiming
the decrees of Chalcedon on his return. But a few years after,
for some unknown reason, he was deposed. In 461 a violent Mono-
physite, Peter the Fuller, succeeded in intruding into the see. His
contribution to the Monophysite cause was of the kind always more
effectual than argument in winning popular sympathy—a change in
ritual. He introduced into the Trisagion “Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of Hosts” the phrase: “who was crucified for us. ” The
imputation of suffering to one of the Trinity seemed to go further in the
doctrine of One Nature than even the ascription to the Deity of birth
in time. The catch-phrase excited the more passion because of the
opportunity it afforded for rival singing or shouting in the church
services. Peter was twice expelled from Antioch, but returned in
triumph, and took an active part in the Henoticon scheme, to which we
shall come directly.
Meantime, Ibas had returned to Edessa. The part taken by this
city in the next period of the conflict is so interesting and important
that it may seem desirable to notice here the circumstances which had
made it theologically prominent. Edessa was the capital of the border-
province of Osrhoene, belonging to the Empire, but close to the Persian
frontier. According to tradition, it had received Christianity at a very
early period, and there is no doubt that the people of those regions,
speaking a Syrian tongue, and but little acquainted with Greek
philosophy, held a theology different in many respects from that of the
Catholics or of Greek-speaking heretics of the fourth and early fifth
centuries. All this, however, came to be changed by two events : the
foundation of a school, chiefly for theological studies, at Edessa (circ.
A. D. 363) and the active efforts of Bishop Rabbula (d. A. D. 435) to
bring the church of Edessa into line with those of the Empire. These
two forces, on the present occasion, acted in contrary directions. The
school, which had been founded soon after the abandonment of Nisibis
to the Persians (363), had become a nursery of Antiochene thought.
For some time Ibas had presided over it, and laboured hard at the
translation and promulgation of the theology and exegesis of Theodore
of Mopsuestia, the real founder (as is sometimes stated) of Nes-
torianism. Rabbula the bishop was an uncompromising Cyrillian.
On his death Ibas was raised to the bishopric, and thence exerted
his influence in the same direction as formerly, supported by a faithful
and singularly able pupil, Barsumas or Barsauma, who shared his
fortunes and returned with him to Edessa after the Council of Chal-
cedon. On the death of Ibas, however, there came a Monophysite
reaction. Nonnus, who had held the see while Ibas was under a cloud,
reascended the episcopal throne (457). In his anxiety to purge the city
## p. 515 (#545) ############################################
471–475]
Issue of the Henoticon
515
an
of Nestorianism (though Ibas had anathematised Nestorius more than
once), he made an attack on the school, and banished a large number of
“Persian” teachers, i. e. of the orientals who had kept by Ibas. Bar-
sumas came to Nisibis, now under Persian rule, and there devoted himself
to the task of freeing the Syrian Church from the Western yoke, and
of combating Monophysite doctrine. It will shortly appear how
unexpected turn of events greatly assisted him in both these objects.
What has chiefly to be noticed here is that a few years after the Council
of Chalcedon, Nestorians and Eutychians, or those to whom their adver-
saries would respectively apply these names, were in unstable equilibrium
in various parts of the East.
IV. We now come to the fourth stage in the controversy, or series
of controversies, which both manifest and also enhance the religious dis-
union of this century: the attempt of the Emperor Zeno, along with
the bishops of Constantinople and Alexandria, to bring about a com-
promise. A few words about the character and position of each of the
three parties in this attempt may fitly precede our examination of their
policy and the reason of its failure.
Zeno the Isaurian (history has forgotten his original name—Tarasico-
dissa the son of Rusumbladestus) was son-in-law of Leo I, and succeeded
his own infant son Leo II in 474. As to the part of his policy which
concerns us here, we have Gibbon's often-quoted remark that “it is in
ecclesiastical story that Zeno appears least contemptible. ” We shall see
directly that this opinion is open to controversy. But there is no doubt
that Zeno found himself in a very difficult position. Scarcely was he seated
on his throne when Basiliscus, brother of the Empress-dowager, raised
an insurrection against him (475), and he went into exile. Basiliscus
appealed to the Monophysite subjects of the Empire, anathematised the
Tome of Leo and the Council of Chalcedon, and recalled the disaffected
bishops, including Timothy the Cat and Peter the Fuller. The circular
letter in which he stated this decision is a remarkable assertion of the
secular power over the Church. It was, however, of no lasting effect. .
The storm it aroused forced Basiliscus to countermand it. After about
two years of banishment, Zeno fought or bought his way back. The
bishops who had assented to the Encyclical of Basiliscus made very
humble apology, and for a time it seemed as if the Chalcedonian settle-
ment would prevail. The fact that it did not, is to be attributed mainly
to the bishops of Constantinople and Alexandria, Acacius and Peter.
Acacius who had succeeded Gennadius (third after Anatolius) on the
episcopal throne of Constantinople in 471, was a man of supple character,
forced by circumstances to appear as a champion of theological causes
rather than in the more congenial character of a diplomatist. He seems
to have been drawn into opposition to Basiliscus, to whose measures he
had at first assented, then to have headed the opposition to them and to
have earned the credit of the Anti-encyclical and of the final surrender
CH. XVII.
33--2
## p. 516 (#546) ############################################
516
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[482
of the usurper. In this crisis, Acacius had found his hand forced by the
monks of the capital. The monastic element is very strong in all the
controversies of the period, but it is not always on one side. In Egypt,
as we have seen, the monks were Monophysite. In Constantinople, the
,
great order of the Acoemetae (sleepless—so called from the perpetual
psalmody kept up in their churches) was fanatically Chalcedonian.
Possibly the recent foundation (under the patriarch Gennadius) of their
great monastery of Studium by a Roman, may partly account for their
devotion to the Tome of Leo. In any case, they formed the most vigorous
resisting body to all efforts against the settlement of Chalcedon. The
policy of Acacius seems to have been determined by the influence acquired
over him by Peter Mongus of Alexandria, although, in his earlier days
of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, he had regarded Peter as an arch-heretic.
Peter Mongus, or the Stammerer, had been implicated in many of
the violent acts of Dioscorus, and had been archdeacon to Timothy the
Cat. On the death of Timothy, he was, under circumstances somewhat
diversely related, chosen as his successor, though the other Timothy
(Salophaciolus) was still alive. On the death of Salophaciolus, a mild and
moderate man, there was a hotly disputed succession, and Zeno obtained
the recognition of Peter as patriarch of Alexandria (A. D. 482). Peter
had already sketched out a line of policy with Acacius, which was
shortly embodied in the document well known as the Henoticon or
Union Scheme of Zeno.
The object of the Henoticon was stated as the restoration of peace
and unity to the Church. The means by which such unity was to be
obtained were, however, unlikely to satisfy more than one party. We
have seen that Gibbon eulogises it, and more recent historians have
followed his opinion. But since a theological eirenicon drawn up by
men of shifty character and no scruples must be judged by the measure
of its success, we may hesitate to congratulate the originators of a
document which, though approved by the patriarchs of the East, was
certainly not so by all their clergy and people, and therefore caused a
schism of thirty-five years between Rome and Constantinople, and forced
-
the Church of the far East into counter-organisation under the aegis of
the Great King. Like the Emperor Constantius before him, who sought
to settle the Arian difficulty by abolishing the ówooúolov, and the
Emperor Constans after him, who wished to allay the bad feelings of
the Monotheletes and their opponents, by disallowing their distinctive
terminology, Zeno tried the autocratic short cut out of controversy
by the prohibition of technical terms. Like the other would be
pacifiers, he aroused a great storm.
The Henoticon is in the form of a letter from the Emperor to the
bishops and clergy, monks and laity, of Alexandria, Egypt, Libya, and
Pentapolis. It begins by setting forth the sufficiency of the faith as
declared at Nicaea and at Constantinople, and goes on to regret the
## p. 517 (#547) ############################################
Opposition to the Henoticon
517
а
number of those who, owing to the late discords, had died without
baptism or communion, and the shedding of blood which had defiled the
earth and even the air. Therefore, the above-mentioned symbols which
had also been confirmed at Ephesus are to be regarded as entirely adequate.
Nestorius and Eutyches are anathematised and the “twelve chapters" or
anathemas of Cyril approved. It declares that Christ is “consubstantial
with the Father in respect of the Godhead and consubstantial with our-
selves as respects the manhood; that He, having descended and become
incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary, the Virgin and Mother of God,
is one and not two. . . for we do in no degree admit those who make
either a division or a confusion or introduce a phantom. ” It goes on to
say that this is no new form of faith, and that if anyone had taught any
contrary doctrine, whether at Chalcedon or elsewhere, he was to be
anathematised. Finally, all men are exhorted to return into the com-
munion of the Church.
On its face, the document may seem reasonable enough. If all men
could be brought to an agreement on the basis of the creeds of 325 and
381, the less said about Chalcedon the better. But the very mention of
Chalcedon in the document, with the suggestion that it might have
erred, destroys the semblance of perfect impartiality. As might naturally
be expected, the Alexandrians and Egyptians generally were ready to
adopt it, though there was an exception in the "headless” party
(acephali), the right wing of the anti-Chalcedonians, who were not
satisfied because it did not directly condemn the Tome of Leo. But
these people were extreme. In general, the apparent intention of
leaving the authority of Chalcedon an open question was interpreted
as giving full liberty to repudiate that authority. This was certainly
the view taken by Peter Mongus, and in all probability by Acacius
likewise. Certain letters purporting to be from these prelates shew a
more compromising spirit, but in a lately discovered correspondence
handed down from Armenian sources, we find Peter denouncing the
“infamous Leo,” and exhorting Acacius, as he celebrates mass, to sub-
stitute mentally for the names of Marcian, Pulcheria, and others whom
he is bound outwardly to commemorate, those of Dioscorus, Eudocia,
and other faithful persons.
As might naturally be expected, the Henoticon policy received
strenuous opposition in Rome, where Simplicius, the next pope but
one after Leo the Great, was determined to lose none of the ground
gained by his predecessors. After a very bitter and unsatisfactory
correspondence with Acacius, and two nugatory embassies to Con-
stantinople, Simplicius solemnly excommunicated the Patriarch of
Constantinople, as favourer of heretics, at a synod in Rome.
An
Acoemete monk took charge of the notification and fastened it to the
mantle of Acacius during service. A similar sentence was passed on
Mongus and on Zeno himself.
CH. XVII.
## p. 518 (#548) ############################################
518
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century [491–518
During the long period of the schism, a good many efforts were made
for the restoration of peace, which proved abortive by reason on the one
hand of the high demands of the Roman see, which always required the
erasure of the name of Acacius from the diptychs, and on the other, the
growth in power and assurance of Eastern Monophysitism. Anastasius,
Zeno's successor (491-518), generally bore a character for piety and
moderation, but towards the end of his life, when he was very aged,
appears to have been committed to a Monophysite policy. He seems at
least to have been regarded by the Monophysites of later days as friendly
to their party. He was influenced in this direction by a refugee of great
force of intellect and will, Severus the Pisidian, formerly a pagan and
a lawyer, later an uncompromising Monophysite, and head of the once
“headless party" to whom the Henoticon seemed not to go far enough.
Under his influence, the people of Constantinople were agitated by the
singing in church of the Trisagion with addition, while their rivals
shouted Peter's Theopaschite in its original form. Anastasius shewed
some firmness in withstanding the Roman demands, but he was un-
fortunate in his dealings with his own patriarchs. The first of these,
Euphemius, who was eager for peace with Rome, he degraded from
office, only to replace him by another advocate (Macedonius) of the same
cause, and after Macedonius in turn had been degraded, a patriarch was
appointed (Timotheus) who gave no confidence to either party. With
a large section of the people, Anastasius, in spite of his conscientious
devotion to duty, made himself intensely unpopular. He made a last
attempt to come to an agreement with Pope Hormisdas, but it failed in
the same way as previous efforts. The task of making terms with Rome
was left to his successor Justin, who became emperor in 518. A solemn
ceremony was held in rehabilitation of the Council of Chalcedon. Shortly
after, legates arrived from the Pope, and union was restored on the
condition, formerly refused, of the erasure of Acacius' name from the
diptychs. Strange to say the two patriarchs whom Anastasius had
displaced for their Romeward inclinations, were, in virtue of their
schismatic appointment, struck off likewise. Zeno and Anastasius
received a kind of post-mortem excommunication. All the leading
members of Monophysite and other heretical sects were anathematised.
The end of the schism can hardly be regarded as terminating the
series of controversies which are the subject of this chapter. East and
West were never again to be reunited with any cordiality. But now,
for a time, the outward dissension ceases, and in the struggle not far
distant with Vandals in Africa and Goths in Italy, the Empire repre-
sents the side of the Catholic Faith against either persecuting or tolerant
Arianism.
Meantime, in the East, the Henoticon and the semi-Monophysite
policy of the Emperors had far-reaching results. Mention has already
been made of the school of Edessa, once presided over by Ibas,
## p. 519 (#549) ############################################
489–578]
Nestorianism and Monophysitism in the East
519
and of the reaction in Osrhoene, after Ibas' death, in a Monophysite
direction. In 489 Zeno, regarding Edessa as still a hotbed of Nes-
torianism, closed the school there. The result was that a good many
scholars migrated across the Persian frontier to Nisibis where, as already
stated, Barsumas was bishop. In this city a very flourishing school was
founded, in which the works of the great Antiochene doctors, Diodorus
of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, might be studied in peace, and
where even the memory of Nestorius himself was honoured. The
great episcopal see of the Persian Church had since 410 been fixed at
Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and the bishop (catholicos) of that see was fairly
independent of those who, from his point of view, were regarded as the
“ western fathers” of the Syrian churches. Christians in Persia enjoyed
peace and patronage, with intermittent persecutions, under the great
kings of the Sassanid dynasty. It seems to have been part of the
Nestorian policy of Barsumas to convince the king that Monophysitism
meant inclination to side with the Empire whenever war broke out,
while Nestorianism was consistent with loyalty to Persia. Under these
circumstances, the Nestorian Church in Persia grew and flourished.
Beside its school at Nisibis, it had, in course of time, one at Seleucia.
Its character was greatly determined by its monastic institutions. Its
missionary zeal made itself felt in India and even in China. Altogether,
though the time of its greatness was not of very long duration, it
acquired, by its intellectual and religious activity, a very respectable
place among the Churches which the dissensions of the fifth century
alienated from Catholic Christendom.
While Christianity in Persia was becoming Nestorian, Syria was
becoming Monophysite. The whole story of the process does not
fall within our present limits, but it may be remarked that the
great organiser of the Monophysite communities, both in Egypt
and Syria, was Severus the Pisidian who held the see of Antioch from
512 till his deposition in 519, and whose active and productive life
ended about 540. The reorganiser of the Monophysite Church after
the persecution which followed the reunion of Rome and Constantinople
was Jacobus Baradaeus, who died about 578, and from whom the
Syrian Monophysites are sometimes called Jacobites. His history,
however, does not concern us here.
Historically viewed, the interest of these controversies lies not so
much in the motives by which they were inspired as in the dissolutions
and combinations to which they gave birth. The alienation of churches
seems in many cases to be at bottom the alienation of peoples and nations,
the religious difference supplying pretext rather than cause. And some-
times the asserted cause of the dispute is lost sight of when the difference
has been made permanent. So it was, apparently, with the Jacobite-
,
Syrian and the Nestorian-Persian Churches. Also we may notice that
the Christianity of the Copts has become more like a reversion, with
CH. XVII.
## p. 520 (#550) ############################################
520
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
differences, to the popular religion of the old Egyptians than an
elaboration of the principles of Cyril and Dioscorus. And again the
breach between Greeks and Latins was sure to break out again, however
often the ecclesiastical dispute which had served as the occasion of a
temporary alienation might be settled. The fruits of the disunion we
have been examining became evident enough in the days of the
Mahommedan invasions, yet had the actual occasions of the disunion
been entirely absent, we can hardly feel sure that a united Christendom
would have stood ready to repel the Saracen advance. Even if the
Empire had never lost its unity, it could hardly have retained in
permanent and loyal subordination the populations of Egypt and of
the East. They had been but superficially connected with Byzantium,
while, perhaps unconsciously, they remained under the sway of more
ancient civilisations than those of Hellas and of Rome.
## p. 521 (#551) ############################################
521
CHAPTER XVIII.
MONASTICISM.
CHRISTIAN Monasticism was a natural outgrowth of the earlier
Christian asceticism, which had its roots in the gospel. For it is now
recognised that such sayings as: “If thou wouldest be perfect, go sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor,. . . and come, follow me"; and :
“There are eunuchs, which made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake: he that is able to receive it, let him receive it”; and the
teaching of St Paul on celibacy, did as a matter of fact give an impetus to
the tendency so common in seriously religious minds towards the practice
of asceticism. These tendencies are clearly discernible among Christians
from the beginning; and not only among the sects, but also in the
great Church. Celibacy was the first and always the chief asceticism;
but fasting and prayer, and the voluntary surrender of possessions, and
also works of philanthropy, were recognised exercises of those who gave
themselves up to an ascetical life. This was done at first without
withdrawal from the world or abandonment of home or the ordinary
avocations of life. At an early date female ascetics received ecclesiastical
recognition among the virgins and widows, and there are grounds for
believing that at the middle of the third century there already were
organised communities of women--for in the Life of Anthony we are
told that before withdrawing from the world he placed his sister in a
Ilapdevớv or house of virgins, the name later used for a nunnery. At
this date there was nothing of the kind for men ; but, at any rate in
Egypt, the male ascetics used to leave their homes and dwell in huts in
the gardens near the towns. For when, c. 270, St Anthony left the
world, it was this manner of life he embraced at first.
St Anthony was born in middle Egypt about the year 250. When
he was twenty, on hearing in church the gospel text "If thou wouldest
be perfect," as cited above, he took the words as a personal call to
himself and acted on them, going to practise the ascetical life among
the ascetics who dwelt at his native place. After 15 years so spent,
he went into complete solitude, taking up his abode in a deserted
CH. XVIII.
## p. 522 (#552) ############################################
522
St Anthony. Antonian Monachism
fort at a place called Pispir, on the east bank of the Nile opposite the
Fayum, now called Der-el-Memun (c. 285). In this retreat Anthony
spent twenty years in the strictest seclusion, wholly given up to prayer
and religious exercises. A number of those who wished to lead an
ascetic life congregated around him, desiring that he should be their
teacher and guide. At last he complied with their wishes and came
forth from his seclusion, to become the inaugurator and first organiser
of Christian monachism.
This event took place about the beginning of the fourth century-
305 is the traditional date; only a few years later did Pachomius found,
in the far south, the first Christian monastery properly so called. It
will be convenient to trace separately the two streams of monastic
tradition that flowed respectively from the two great founders, Anthony
and Pachomius.
The form of monachism that drew its inspiration from St Anthony
prevailed throughout Lower or Northern Egypt. All along the Nile to
the north of Lycopolis (Asyut), and in the adjacent deserts, and on the
sea-board near Alexandria, there were at the end of the fourth century
vast numbers of monks, sometimes living alone, sometimes two or three
together, sometimes in large congregations--but even then the life was
semi-eremitical. Antonian monachism reached its greatest and most
characteristic development in the deserts of Nitria and Scete, and it is
here that we have the most abundant materials for forming a picture of
the life of these monks. Palladius and Cassian both lived in this district
for many years during the last decade of the fourth century; St Jerome,
Rufinus, and the writer of the Historia Monachorum visited it; and
they have left on record their impressions. Nitria, the present Wady
Natron, is a valley round some nitre lakes, lying out in the desert to
the west of the Nile, some 60 miles due south of Alexandria. Those
who began the monastic life here were Amoun and Macarius of Egypt,
himself a disciple of Anthony. A few miles from Nitria was the desert
called Cellia from the number of hermits' cells that studded it, and
further away still, out in the “utter solitude," was the monastic settle-
ment of Scete. Rufinus and the writer of the Historia Monachorum
describe Cellia : The cells stood out of sight and out of earshot of one
another; only on the Saturday and Sunday did the monks assemble for
the services; all the other time was spent in complete solitude, no one
ever visiting another except in case of sickness or for some spiritual
need. Palladius says that 600 lived in Cellia.
This was a purely eremitical life; but in Nitria it was otherwise.
The following is Palladius' account, as he saw it in 390.
“ In Mount Nitria 5000 monks dwell following different manners of
life, each according to his power and desire; so that anyone could live
alone, or with another, or with several. In the mountain there are seven
bakeries and a great church by which stand three palm trees, each with
AL
## p. 523 (#553) ############################################
Monachism in Nitria and Scete
523
a whip hanging from it; one is for the monks who misbehave themselves,
one for thieves, and one for chance comers : so that anyone who offended
and was judged worthy of stripes, embraced the palm tree and made
amends by receiving on the back the fixed number of blows. Close to
the church is the guest house, and any guest who comes is entertained
until he goes of his own accord, even if he stay for two or three years.
For the first week they let him stay in idleness, but after that they
make him work, either in the garden or the bake-house or the kitchen.
Or if he be a man of position they give him a book to read, but do not
allow him to have intercourse with anyone till noon. Physicians dwell
in this mountain, and confectioners; they use wine, and wine is sold.
They all make linen with their hands, so that they have no needs. And
about three in the afternoon one may stand and hear how the psalmody
arises from each habitation, and fancy oneself rapt aloft into Paradise.
But they assemble at the church only on Saturday and Sunday. ” Palladius
tells, too, of one Apollonius, a merchant, who became a monk in Nitria,
and being too old to learn a handicraft, purchased medicines and stores
at Alexandria and cared for all the brotherhood in their sicknesses, for
twenty years going the round of the cells from daybreak till three in
the afternoon,
knocking at the doors to see if anyone was sick : and of
another who on becoming a monk retained his money and devoted it
wholly to works of hospitality towards the poor, the aged and the
infirm, and was judged by the fathers to be equal in merit to his
brother, who had dispossessed himself of his belongings and given himself
up wholly to a life of strict asceticism.
What has been said will bring out the special feature of this type of
monasticism—its voluntariness : even when the monks lived together,
there was not any common life according to rule. A large discretion
was left to each one to follow his own devices in the employment of
his time and the practice of his asceticisms. In short, this form of
monachism grew out of the eremitical life, and it retained its eremitical
or semi-eremitical character even in the great monastic colonies of
Nitria and Scete.
We may now pass to the Pachomian monachism dominant in the
southern parts of Egypt. Pachomius was a pagan by birth; he was
born about 290, and became a Christian at the age of twenty. He
adopted the eremitical life under Palaemon, a hermit who lived by the
Nile in the diocese of Tentyra (Denderah). The legend of his call to
be the creator of Christian cenobitical life is thus told by Palladius.
“Pachomius was in an extraordinary degree a lover of mankind and
a lover of the brotherhood. While he was sitting in his cave an angel
appeared unto him and said: “Thou hast rightly ordered thy own life;
needlessly therefore dost thou sit in the cave; come forth and bring
together all the young monks and dwell with them, and legislate for
them according to the exemplar I will give thee. ' And he gave him
а
CH. XVIII.
## p. 524 (#554) ############################################
524
Pachomian Monachism
a brazen tablet whereon was engraved the Rule. ” There follows what
probably is the most authentic epitome of the earliest Christian Rule
for Monks.
St Pachomius founded his first monastery at Tabennisi near Denderah
c. 315-320, and by the time of his death in 346 his order counted nine
monasteries of men and one of women, all situated between Panopolis
(Akhmim) to the north and Latopolis (Esneh) to the south, and peopled
by some 3000 monks in all. After his death other monasteries were
founded, one at Canopus near Alexandria, and several in Ethiopia ; so
that by the end of the century Palladius tells us there were 7000
Pachomian or Tabennesiot monks—St Jerome's 50,000 may safely be
rejected.
Palladius visited the Pachomian monastery at Panopolis (Akhmim)
and has left us what is by far the most actual and living picture of
the daily life. He tells us that there were 300 monks in this monastery,
who practised all the handicrafts and out of their superabundance
contributed to the support of nunneries and prisons. . The servers of the
week got up at daybreak and some worked in the kitchen while others
laid the tables, getting them ready by the appointed hour, spreading on
them loaves of bread, mustard leaves, olive salad, cheeses, herbs chopped
up, and pieces of meat for the old and the sick. “And some come in and
have their meal at noon, and others at 1 or at 2 or at 3 or at 5, or in the
late evening, and others every second day. And their work was in like
fashion: one worked in the fields, another in the garden, another in the
smithy, another in the bakery, another at carpentry, another at fulling,
another at basket-making, another in the tanyard, another at shoe-
making, another at tailoring, another at calligraphy”; he mentions also
that they keep camels and herds of swine: he adds that they learn
by heart all the Scriptures. From the Rule it appears that they
assembled in the church four times a day, and approached Communion
on Saturday and Sunday.
Here we have a fully constituted and indeed highly organised
cenobitical life, the day being divided between a fixed routine of church
services, Bible reading, and work seriously undertaken as an integral
factor of the life. Herein lies one of the most significant differences
between Pachomian and Antonian monachisms. In the latter the
references to work are few, and the work is of a sedentary kind, commonly
basket-making and linen-weaving, which could be carried on in the cell ;
and the work was undertaken merely in order to supply the necessaries
of life, or to fill up the
time that could not be spent in actual prayeron
contemplation or the reading of the Bible. Palladius' picture of the
Pachomian monastery, on the other hand, is that of a busy, well-
organised, self-supporting agricultural colony, in which the daily religious
exercises only alternated with, and did not impede, the daily labour that
was so large an element of the life: and so this picture is of extraordinary
a
## p. 525 (#555) ############################################
Theory of Egyptian Monachism
525
value. Whatever may be thought of the life led by the hermits or
quasi-hermits of northern Egypt, there will hardly be two opinions as to
the strenuousness and virility of the ideal aimed at by. St Pachomius.
The Antonian ideal is the one that (even in accentuated forms) has been
in all ages dominant in the Easty and it was the form of monachism
first propagated throughout Western Europe. It was not the least
of St Benedict's contributions to Western monachism that he introduced,
with the modifications called for by differences of climate and national
character, a type of monachism more akin to the Pachomian, in which
work of one kind or another, undertaken for its own sake, forms an
essential part of the life.
Having thus traced in the briefest manner the external phenomena
of the earliest Christian monachism, we must say a word on its inner
spirit. The theory or philosophy of primitive Christian monachism
'finds its fullest expression in Cassian's Collations. These are 24 con-
ferences of considerable length, which purport to be utterances of
several of the most prominent of the Nitriot and Scetic monks, made in
response to queries and difficulties put by Cassian himself and his friend
Germanus, who lived for a number of years in Scete between 390 and
400. The Collations were not written till 25 years later, and the
question has been raised how far they reproduce actual discourses
uttered by the various monks named; or are compositions of Cassian's,
a literary device for presenting the teaching and ideas current in Scete.
In any case, there can be no reasonable doubt that they do faithfully
represent the substance and spirit of that teaching—and this is all that
is of historical importance. Cassian puts into the foreground, in his
first Collation, an exposition of the purpose or scope of the monastic
life: Abbot Moses declares it to be the attainment of Purity of Heart, so
that the mind may rest fixed on God and divine things: for this purpose
only are fastings, watchings, meditation of Scripture, solitude, privations
to be undertaken : such asceticisms are not perfection, but only the .
instruments of perfection. This conference supplies the key to the
fundamental conception of the monastic state. It is a systematic and
ordered attempt to exercise the tendencies symbolised by the terms
Mysticism and Asceticism—two of the most deeply rooted religious
instincts of the human heart, but which beyond most others need
regulation and control.
Egyptian monachism was probably at its
highest point of development about the year 400, just when Cassian and
Palladius came in contact with it. Without accepting the probably
apocryphal figures given by some of the authorities, there can be no
doubt that there were at that date very many thousands of monks in
Egypt. And the original enthusiasms and spirituality of the movement
still, on the whole, held sway. But with the fifth century the decay set
in, which has gone on progressively till our_day. The Egyptian monks,
who had been the great adherents of the Catholic faith in the Arian
CH. XVIII.
## p. 526 (#556) ############################################
526 Monachism in Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia
times, became the chief supporters of Dioscorus in making the Egyptian
Church Monophysite. As the Mahommedan invasion swept over Egypt
the monasteries were in great measure destroyed, and Egyptian monas-
ticism has ever since been gradually dying out; at the present day only
a few monasteries survive, and the institution is in a moribund condition,
unless some unlooked-for revival come about.
When we pass from Egypt to the oriental lands, we find that
in Palestine monastic life was introduced from Egypt by Hilarion early
in the fourth century. He had been a disciple of Anthony, and the life
he Ted in Palestine was purely eremitical. There are traces of cenobitic
monasteries in Palestine during the fourth century, especially those
established under Western influences—as by St Jerome and Paula, Rufinus
and the two Melanias. But the glimpses of Palestinian monachism
at the end of the century given us by Palladius in the Lausiac History,
reveal the fact that it remained in large measure eremitical
In Syria and Mesopotamia, whether in the Roman or in the Persian
territories, there was at the beginning of the fourth century what
appears to have been an indigenous growth of asceticism analogous
to the pre-monastic asceticism found in Egypt and elsewhere. The
institution was known as the “Sons of the Covenant," and the members
were bound to celibacy and the usual ascetical practices, but they were
not monks properly so called. We hear much of them from Aphraates
(c. 330); and Rabbula, bishop of Edessa a century later, wrote a code
of regulations for priests and Sons of the Covenant. As he wrote also
a Rule for monks, it seems clear that the Sons of the Covenant did not
develop into a monastic system, but the two institutions existed along-
side of each other till at any rate the middle of the fifth century. The
beginnings of monachism proper in the Syrian lands are difficult to
trace. It is probable that the story of Eugenius, who was said to have
introduced monasticism from Egypt in the early years of the fourth
century, must be rejected as legendary. Theodoret opens his Historia
Religiosa, or lives of the Syrian monks, with an account of one Jacob
who lived as a hermit near Nisibis before 325; but as this was a century
before Theodoret's time, the facts must remain somewhat doubtful.
He gives accounts of a number of Syrian monks in the end
of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth: most of
them were hermits; and even when disciples gathered around them,
the life continued to be strongly individualistic and eremitical. This
has continued to be the tendency of Syrian monachism, both Nestorian
and Monophysite. Cenobitical life was commonly only the first stage
of a monk's career; the goal aimed at was to be a hermit; after a few
years each monk withdrew to a cell at a distance from the monastery, to
live in solitude, frequenting the monastic church only on Sundays and
feasts. Rabbula's Admonitions for Monks (c. 425) are of great interest :
he lays down that no one is thus to become a hermit until he has been
:
## p. 527 (#557) ############################################
Character of Oriental Monachism
527
а
proved in a monastery for a considerable time. The following regulation
is of special interest: “Those who have been made priests and deacons
in the monasteries, and have been entrusted with churches in the villages,
shall appoint as superiors those who are able to rule the brotherhood;
and they themselves shall remain in charge of their churches. ” The
practice here indicated, of monks serving churches, is probably unique
in the East; it has been done in the West in later times, but has
always been regarded as abnormal.
Thus while in Egypt the tendency was to abandon the eremitical life
for the cenobitical, in Syria the opposite tendency set in. In another
respect, too, Syrian monachism developed aļong lines different from those
that prevailed in Egypt. Egyptian monks practised, it is true, austerities
,
and mortifications of the severest kind; but they were what may be
called natural, as prolonged abstinence from food and sleep, exposure to
heat and cold, silence and solitude, heavy labour and physical fatigue.
In Syria on the contrary austerities of a highly artificial character
became the vogue: the extraordinary life of the pillar hermits, who
abode for years on the summits of pillars, at once presents itself in
illustration. Theodoret and the other authorities speak as if it were a
common practice, that monks should carry continually fastened to their
backs great stones or iron weights—Rabbula forbids this except to
hermits. Sozomen tells us of a kind of Syrian monk called “Grazers,"
who used to go out into the fields at meal-times and eat grass
like cattle.
A good picture of the lines on which Syrian monachism settled down
after the sixth century is afforded by Thomas of Marga's “Book of the
Governors,” or history of the great Nestorian monastery of Beth Abhe
in Mesopotamia.
All the evidence shews that the ingrained oriental hankering after
asceticism, still found in Hindu fakirs, asserted itself in Syrian mona-
chism from the beginning, and it has there at all times been a characteristic
feature of the system.
Monasticism seems to have made its entry into Greek-speaking lands
from the East. It first appears in the Roman province of Armenia in
connexion with Eustathius of Sebaste, c. 330-340. The claim has been
.
made, indeed, that monasteries were established in Constantinople by
Constantine, but this must be regarded as legend; there probably were
none there before the end of the fourth century. The monasticism of
Eustathius was of a highly ascetical character, with strongly developed
Manichaean tendencies, which were condemned at the Council of Gangra,
c. 340. Similar in character, but carrying the same tendencies to still
greater extremes, were the Messalians or Euchitae, in Paphlagonia,
described by Epiphanius.
The real father of Greek monachism was St Basil. After spending
a year in visiting the monks of Egypt and Syria, he retired, c. 360, to a
lonely spot near Neocaesarea in Pontus, and there began to lead a
a
CH, XVIII.
## p. 528 (#558) ############################################
528
St Basil's Monastic Legislation
monastic life with the disciples who quickly gathered round him.
His
conception of the monastic life was in many important points a
new departure, and it proved epoch-making in the history of mona-
chism : it has continued to this day the fundamental conception of
Greek and Slavonic monasticism ; and St Benedict, though he borrowed
more in matter of detail from Cassian, in matter of principles and ideas
owed more to St Basil than to any other monastic legislator. Thus in
the monasticism of both East and West, St Basil's ideas still live on.
For this reason it will be proper to give a somewhat full account of his
monastic legislation. The materials are to be found chiefly in the two
sets of Rules (the Longer and the Shorter), the authenticity of which is
now recognised, and in certain of his Letters, supplemented by letters of
St Gregory Nazianzen to him.
St Basil's construction of the monastic life was fully cenobitical, in
this respect advancing beyond that of St Pachomius. In the Pachomian
system the monks dwelt in different houses within the monastery pre-
cincts; the meals were at different hours; and all assembled in the
church oply for the greater services. But St Basil established a common
roof, a common table, and common prayer always; so that we meet here
for the first time in Christian monastic' legislation the idea of the
cenobium, and common life properly so called.
said that further definitions were unnecessary, that the doctrines of
Cyril and of Leo were in full accord, had some show of reason on their
side. But the need for further definition was urged, and nearly led to
a collapse of the whole Council. A general agreement was obtained
without great difficulty. The creeds of Nicaea and of Constantinople,
the letters of Cyril to Nestorius and to John of Antioch, and finally the
Tome of Leo, were read and approved. It was this last document
that the Roman delegates regarded as sufficient to put a stop to all
further controversy. It has always remained a classical monument in
the history of Christology, and has been far more widely read and
studied than the declaration finally made at Chalcedon. Perhaps it
seemed insufficient to some because the word €OTókos was not contained
in it, though the idea implied in that word is set forth in unmistakable
terms. And again, though very many present had subscribed to the
Tome, it was not unnatural that in many quarters there should be a re-
luctance to accept as possessing peculiar authority a document emanating
from a Western source. Anatolius and certain other bishops accordingly
drew up a formula which was presented to the Council. But this only
roused fierce opposition from the Roman legates, and even to a threat
CH. XVII.
## p. 510 (#540) ############################################
510
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
that they would withdraw altogether, and cause a new Council to be
assembled in Italy.
The obnoxious creed has not come down to us, but we gather that
it contained the expression : Christ is of two natures (ex dúo púoewv)
instead of the phrase in two natures (év dúo púbeo. v). Those who
would regard the theological difference as rooted in philosophical
distinction may suggest a rational apprehension in the minds of Leo
and his supporters, that whatever might be the principle of union or
separation in divine and human nature, it could not, as Eutyches
supposed, be dependent on a merely temporal relation.
It would, of course, have been fatal to the policy of the Emperor and
Empress if Rome had seceded at this juncture. As a compromise,
Anatolius and a chosen representative committee of bishops were bidden
to retire into the oratory of St Euphemia and prepare a new creed.
The document, when produced, proved to be based on that of Leo. But
it contained on the one side the word cotókos, and on the other—there
can hardly be any doubt, in spite of what seem to be clerical errors-the
phrase έν δύο φύσεσιν.
After the question of the Faith had been settled, the Emperor came
himself to the Council and congratulated the bishops on the success of
their labours in the cause of unity and truth. Sundry matters of local
yet not unimportant interest were transacted in the last sessions. Thus
Ibas and Theodoret were reinstated in their sees. In the case of
Theodoret, a natural reluctance to anathematise the memory of his
quondam friend Nestorius was overcome by threats. The only con-
ceivable excuse is that the anathema may have been drifting into a
mere façon de parler, and that, as shewn above, Nestorius had himself
generously expressed a wish that his own reputation might not be
preferred to the cause of truth.
Finally, a list of canons, thirty in number, were drawn up, mostly on
points of less burning interest, and the imperial authorities undertook
to add the force of the secular arm to the decrees of the Council. But
before the members dispersed, a stormy discussion arose which might
seem to give the lie to the Emperor's pious hopes, especially as it was
but the beginning of a fresh breach. This was the dispute as to
Canon xxvIII. It is certain, from the remonstrance made by the Roman
delegates, that neither they nor the imperial Commissioners had been
present when the one in question was put to the vote; also that a com-
paratively small number of bishops had subscribed it. The canon is so
important that it had better be given in fulla:
“Following in all things the decisions of the holy Fathers and
acknowledging the canon, which has just been read, of the One Hundred
and Fifty Bishops beloved-of-God (who assembled in the Imperial city
of Constantinople, which is New Rome, in the time of the Emperor
1 Nearly Dr Percival's translation, ap. The Seven Oecumenical Councils.
## p. 511 (#541) ############################################
Objections to Canon XXVIII
511
Theodosius of happy memory), we also do enact and decree the same
things concerning the privileges of the most holy Church of Constanti-
nople, which is New Rome. For the Fathers rightly granted privileges
to the throne of Old Rome, because it was the imperial city. And the
One Hundred and Fifty most religious bishops, actuated by the same
consideration, gave equal privileges (ioa mpeo Beia) to the most holy
throne of New Rome, justly judging that the city which is honoured with
the Sovereignty and the Senate, and enjoys equal privileges with the old
imperial Rome, should in ecclesiastical matters also be magnified as
she is, and rank next after her; so that in the Pontic, the Asian, and the
Thracian Dioceses, the metropolitans only and such bishops also of the
Dioceses aforesaid as are among the barbarians, should be ordained by
the aforesaid most holy throne of the most holy Church of Constanti-
nople; every metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses, together with the
bishops of his province, ordaining his own provincial bishops, as has
been declared by the divine canons; but that, as has been above said, the
metropolitans of the aforesaid Dioceses should be ordained by the arch-
bishop of Constantinople, after the proper elections have been held
according to custom and have been reported to him. ”
It is hardly necessary to say that all the earlier or theoretical part of
this document clashed entirely with Leo's views as to the supremacy of
Rome and the relations of Church and State, while the latter or practical
part seemed to give dangerously wide powers to the see of New Rome.
When the Roman delegates objected, they were allowed a hearing, but
reminded that it was their own fault that they had not been present
when the canon was passed. They lodged a formal protest, supported
by a phrase which had been interpolated into the Nicene canons. The
result was nugatory. The canon was maintained. Leo supported the
action of his delegates, or rather, they had rightly gauged his mind.
A long and stormy correspondence which he kept up with Marcian,
Pulcheria and Anatolius, led to no final settlement. Leo acknowledged
the validity of what had been done at Chalcedon with regard to the
Faith, but held out tenaciously against the claims of the Byzantine see.
There seems a touch of unconscious irony in his championship of the
ancient rights of Alexandria and of Antioch, as well as in his incul-
cations on Anatolius to practise the virtue of humility. He only
became reconciled to Anatolius three years later, after receiving from
him a very apologetic letter, laying the blame on the Byzantine clergy,
and stating that the whole case had been reserved for Leo's decision.
But Anatolius could not bind the Eastern churches. Canon XXVIII
continued to be accepted by the East, though unrecognised by the West.
We may ask which cause, or which party, profited by the Council
of Chalcedon. The Papacy had put forth great claims, and in part
had realised them, yet it seemed at the last to have been overreached
by the East. A certain uniformity of belief had been imposed on a
CH. XVII.
## p. 512 (#542) ############################################
512
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
great part of the Christian world, but this belief was not supposed to
add anything to the authoritative declarations of former councils, and so
far as it wore any semblance of novelty, it served only to embitter
party strife in the regions that most required pacification. The most
active and ambitious disturber of the peace had been got rid of, but only
with the result that his see had become the prey of hostile factions.
There was some gain to the far East, in the restoration of learned and
comparatively moderate men, like Theodoret and Ibas; but they had
still to encounter active opposition. Perhaps the Emperor was the chief
gainer; but he had overstrained his authority. The best that can be
said for the Council is that things might have been worse if no council
had met.
We may take briefly, as Epilogue to the Council of Chalcedon, the
disturbances and insurrections consequent on the attempts to enforce its
decisions: (a) in Palestine; (6) in Egypt; (c) in Provinces further to the
East.
(a) Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, had played a sorry part in the
whole business. It is not surprising that when he returned, pardoned
and rehabilitated, to his bishopric, his flock was not unanimous in
welcoming him back. His opponents, the most vigorous of whom came
from the monastic bodies, set up in opposition to him a certain
Theodosius, a monk who had been at Chalcedon and who had re-
turned full of wrath and of determination to resist the new decisions.
Juvenal fled back to Constantinople, while Theodosius acted as patriarch,
appointing bishops of Monophysite views, and bidding defiance to im-
perial as well as to conciliar authority. The recalcitrant monks had the
sympathy, if not the active assistance, of the ex-Empress Eudocia, who
was still residing in Palestine. Pope Leo, it need scarcely be said, was
vigorous with his pen on the other side. Marcian determined on armed
intervention. Forces were sent under the count Dorotheus, and Juvenal
was reinstated. Theodosius was brought prisoner to Constantinople,
.
and liberated during the next reign. The undercurrent of Mono-
physitism was, however, only covered for a time, not permanently
checked.
(6) In Alexandria, as might be expected, the resistance was more
prolonged and more serious. Whatever the faults of Dioscorus, he still
had partisans among the monks and the common people. His successor
Proterius was chosen, we are told, by the nobiles civitatis, and aristocratic
management did not always succeed in Alexandria. Here again recourse
was had to military force. Proterius had not the art of making himself
popular; and when Dioscorus died at Gangra, his place of banishment,
à clever schemer came to the fore. This was Timothy, a Teuton whose
tribal name, the Herul, was appropriately twisted into Aelurus, the Cat.
He is said to have gone by night to the bedsides of those whom he
wished to persuade and to have told them, as they lay between sleep and
## p. 513 (#543) ############################################
Effects in Egypt and Syria
513
his see.
waking, that he was an angel, sent to bid them provide themselves with
a bishop and, in particular, to choose Timothy. On the death of
Marcian, he obtained his desire and was chosen bishop by the people,
and consecrated in the great church of the Caesarium, once the scene of
the murder of Hypatia. A fate very much like that of Hypatia befel
the bishop Proterius, whose mangled body was dragged through the
streets and then committed to the flames. How far the actual murder
was instigated by Timothy it is impossible to say. The Emperor Leo,
who had succeeded Marcian in 457, could not, of course, sanction the
result of such proceedings. One scheme which suggested itself was the
calling of a new Council. Any notion of the kind was, however, frustrated
by Leo of Rome, who probably thought that an assembly held in the
East at that juncture might prove even more antagonistic to Roman
authority than the Council of Chalcedon. Accordingly, by his advice,
the Emperor sent round circular letters to a large number of bishops
and ascetics (Simeon Stylites had a copy) asking for their opinion and
advice. The result was a general condemnation of Timothy Aelurus,
and a confirmation of the Chalcedonian decrees. One bishop declared
against Chalcedon, but even he was opposed to Timothy. Aelurus was
accordingly driven out and succeeded by another Timothy, called
Salophaciolus. But Aelurus maintained his influence, and on the wave
of Monophysite reaction under the pretender Basiliscus he returned to
From about this time we may date the practical nullity of the
orthodox Alexandrian patriarchate and the rise of the Coptic Church.
But, as is seen by the whole course of events from the days of Theophilus
and earlier, the causes of disruption were not entirely due to the
difference between en and év. Alexandria itself might be Greek and
cosmopolitan, but Egypt had a peculiar and national character, which
was chiefly evident in its language and its institutions, particularly its
monasticism. If it seems surprising that violent ecclesiastical rivalries
and the turbulence of the most unrestrained city mob to be found in all
history should have led to the growth of a church which, with all its
faults, has maintained itself ever since in the affections of the common
people, the clue is to be found in the separation of Greek and Egyptian
elements, which were incapable of a satisfactory and wholesome com-
bination. But the separation naturally led in time to the fall of the
Roman power in the chief seat of Hellenic civilisation in the East.
(c) In the East, on the other hand, in Syria and Mesopotamia,
there was less opposition to the Chalcedonian settlement, but a few years
later a latent discontent broke into revolt. Domnus, bishop of Antioch,
had played an undignified and unhappy part in the controversy. Though
a friend of Theodoret and of Ibas, and an Antiochene in theology, he
had been forced to subscribe the decisions of the Robber Council, and
even after that humiliation had been deprived of his see.
therefore pardoned at Chalcedon, but he was pensioned, not restored
33
a
He was
C. IED. B. v0L. I. CH. XVII.
## p. 514 (#544) ############################################
514
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century [435–461
to office. His successor Maximus had been practically appointed by
Anatolius of Constantinople. Leo thought best to confirm the appoint-
ment, and Maximus justified the hopes placed in him by proclaiming
the decrees of Chalcedon on his return. But a few years after,
for some unknown reason, he was deposed. In 461 a violent Mono-
physite, Peter the Fuller, succeeded in intruding into the see. His
contribution to the Monophysite cause was of the kind always more
effectual than argument in winning popular sympathy—a change in
ritual. He introduced into the Trisagion “Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of Hosts” the phrase: “who was crucified for us. ” The
imputation of suffering to one of the Trinity seemed to go further in the
doctrine of One Nature than even the ascription to the Deity of birth
in time. The catch-phrase excited the more passion because of the
opportunity it afforded for rival singing or shouting in the church
services. Peter was twice expelled from Antioch, but returned in
triumph, and took an active part in the Henoticon scheme, to which we
shall come directly.
Meantime, Ibas had returned to Edessa. The part taken by this
city in the next period of the conflict is so interesting and important
that it may seem desirable to notice here the circumstances which had
made it theologically prominent. Edessa was the capital of the border-
province of Osrhoene, belonging to the Empire, but close to the Persian
frontier. According to tradition, it had received Christianity at a very
early period, and there is no doubt that the people of those regions,
speaking a Syrian tongue, and but little acquainted with Greek
philosophy, held a theology different in many respects from that of the
Catholics or of Greek-speaking heretics of the fourth and early fifth
centuries. All this, however, came to be changed by two events : the
foundation of a school, chiefly for theological studies, at Edessa (circ.
A. D. 363) and the active efforts of Bishop Rabbula (d. A. D. 435) to
bring the church of Edessa into line with those of the Empire. These
two forces, on the present occasion, acted in contrary directions. The
school, which had been founded soon after the abandonment of Nisibis
to the Persians (363), had become a nursery of Antiochene thought.
For some time Ibas had presided over it, and laboured hard at the
translation and promulgation of the theology and exegesis of Theodore
of Mopsuestia, the real founder (as is sometimes stated) of Nes-
torianism. Rabbula the bishop was an uncompromising Cyrillian.
On his death Ibas was raised to the bishopric, and thence exerted
his influence in the same direction as formerly, supported by a faithful
and singularly able pupil, Barsumas or Barsauma, who shared his
fortunes and returned with him to Edessa after the Council of Chal-
cedon. On the death of Ibas, however, there came a Monophysite
reaction. Nonnus, who had held the see while Ibas was under a cloud,
reascended the episcopal throne (457). In his anxiety to purge the city
## p. 515 (#545) ############################################
471–475]
Issue of the Henoticon
515
an
of Nestorianism (though Ibas had anathematised Nestorius more than
once), he made an attack on the school, and banished a large number of
“Persian” teachers, i. e. of the orientals who had kept by Ibas. Bar-
sumas came to Nisibis, now under Persian rule, and there devoted himself
to the task of freeing the Syrian Church from the Western yoke, and
of combating Monophysite doctrine. It will shortly appear how
unexpected turn of events greatly assisted him in both these objects.
What has chiefly to be noticed here is that a few years after the Council
of Chalcedon, Nestorians and Eutychians, or those to whom their adver-
saries would respectively apply these names, were in unstable equilibrium
in various parts of the East.
IV. We now come to the fourth stage in the controversy, or series
of controversies, which both manifest and also enhance the religious dis-
union of this century: the attempt of the Emperor Zeno, along with
the bishops of Constantinople and Alexandria, to bring about a com-
promise. A few words about the character and position of each of the
three parties in this attempt may fitly precede our examination of their
policy and the reason of its failure.
Zeno the Isaurian (history has forgotten his original name—Tarasico-
dissa the son of Rusumbladestus) was son-in-law of Leo I, and succeeded
his own infant son Leo II in 474. As to the part of his policy which
concerns us here, we have Gibbon's often-quoted remark that “it is in
ecclesiastical story that Zeno appears least contemptible. ” We shall see
directly that this opinion is open to controversy. But there is no doubt
that Zeno found himself in a very difficult position. Scarcely was he seated
on his throne when Basiliscus, brother of the Empress-dowager, raised
an insurrection against him (475), and he went into exile. Basiliscus
appealed to the Monophysite subjects of the Empire, anathematised the
Tome of Leo and the Council of Chalcedon, and recalled the disaffected
bishops, including Timothy the Cat and Peter the Fuller. The circular
letter in which he stated this decision is a remarkable assertion of the
secular power over the Church. It was, however, of no lasting effect. .
The storm it aroused forced Basiliscus to countermand it. After about
two years of banishment, Zeno fought or bought his way back. The
bishops who had assented to the Encyclical of Basiliscus made very
humble apology, and for a time it seemed as if the Chalcedonian settle-
ment would prevail. The fact that it did not, is to be attributed mainly
to the bishops of Constantinople and Alexandria, Acacius and Peter.
Acacius who had succeeded Gennadius (third after Anatolius) on the
episcopal throne of Constantinople in 471, was a man of supple character,
forced by circumstances to appear as a champion of theological causes
rather than in the more congenial character of a diplomatist. He seems
to have been drawn into opposition to Basiliscus, to whose measures he
had at first assented, then to have headed the opposition to them and to
have earned the credit of the Anti-encyclical and of the final surrender
CH. XVII.
33--2
## p. 516 (#546) ############################################
516
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
[482
of the usurper. In this crisis, Acacius had found his hand forced by the
monks of the capital. The monastic element is very strong in all the
controversies of the period, but it is not always on one side. In Egypt,
as we have seen, the monks were Monophysite. In Constantinople, the
,
great order of the Acoemetae (sleepless—so called from the perpetual
psalmody kept up in their churches) was fanatically Chalcedonian.
Possibly the recent foundation (under the patriarch Gennadius) of their
great monastery of Studium by a Roman, may partly account for their
devotion to the Tome of Leo. In any case, they formed the most vigorous
resisting body to all efforts against the settlement of Chalcedon. The
policy of Acacius seems to have been determined by the influence acquired
over him by Peter Mongus of Alexandria, although, in his earlier days
of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, he had regarded Peter as an arch-heretic.
Peter Mongus, or the Stammerer, had been implicated in many of
the violent acts of Dioscorus, and had been archdeacon to Timothy the
Cat. On the death of Timothy, he was, under circumstances somewhat
diversely related, chosen as his successor, though the other Timothy
(Salophaciolus) was still alive. On the death of Salophaciolus, a mild and
moderate man, there was a hotly disputed succession, and Zeno obtained
the recognition of Peter as patriarch of Alexandria (A. D. 482). Peter
had already sketched out a line of policy with Acacius, which was
shortly embodied in the document well known as the Henoticon or
Union Scheme of Zeno.
The object of the Henoticon was stated as the restoration of peace
and unity to the Church. The means by which such unity was to be
obtained were, however, unlikely to satisfy more than one party. We
have seen that Gibbon eulogises it, and more recent historians have
followed his opinion. But since a theological eirenicon drawn up by
men of shifty character and no scruples must be judged by the measure
of its success, we may hesitate to congratulate the originators of a
document which, though approved by the patriarchs of the East, was
certainly not so by all their clergy and people, and therefore caused a
schism of thirty-five years between Rome and Constantinople, and forced
-
the Church of the far East into counter-organisation under the aegis of
the Great King. Like the Emperor Constantius before him, who sought
to settle the Arian difficulty by abolishing the ówooúolov, and the
Emperor Constans after him, who wished to allay the bad feelings of
the Monotheletes and their opponents, by disallowing their distinctive
terminology, Zeno tried the autocratic short cut out of controversy
by the prohibition of technical terms. Like the other would be
pacifiers, he aroused a great storm.
The Henoticon is in the form of a letter from the Emperor to the
bishops and clergy, monks and laity, of Alexandria, Egypt, Libya, and
Pentapolis. It begins by setting forth the sufficiency of the faith as
declared at Nicaea and at Constantinople, and goes on to regret the
## p. 517 (#547) ############################################
Opposition to the Henoticon
517
а
number of those who, owing to the late discords, had died without
baptism or communion, and the shedding of blood which had defiled the
earth and even the air. Therefore, the above-mentioned symbols which
had also been confirmed at Ephesus are to be regarded as entirely adequate.
Nestorius and Eutyches are anathematised and the “twelve chapters" or
anathemas of Cyril approved. It declares that Christ is “consubstantial
with the Father in respect of the Godhead and consubstantial with our-
selves as respects the manhood; that He, having descended and become
incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary, the Virgin and Mother of God,
is one and not two. . . for we do in no degree admit those who make
either a division or a confusion or introduce a phantom. ” It goes on to
say that this is no new form of faith, and that if anyone had taught any
contrary doctrine, whether at Chalcedon or elsewhere, he was to be
anathematised. Finally, all men are exhorted to return into the com-
munion of the Church.
On its face, the document may seem reasonable enough. If all men
could be brought to an agreement on the basis of the creeds of 325 and
381, the less said about Chalcedon the better. But the very mention of
Chalcedon in the document, with the suggestion that it might have
erred, destroys the semblance of perfect impartiality. As might naturally
be expected, the Alexandrians and Egyptians generally were ready to
adopt it, though there was an exception in the "headless” party
(acephali), the right wing of the anti-Chalcedonians, who were not
satisfied because it did not directly condemn the Tome of Leo. But
these people were extreme. In general, the apparent intention of
leaving the authority of Chalcedon an open question was interpreted
as giving full liberty to repudiate that authority. This was certainly
the view taken by Peter Mongus, and in all probability by Acacius
likewise. Certain letters purporting to be from these prelates shew a
more compromising spirit, but in a lately discovered correspondence
handed down from Armenian sources, we find Peter denouncing the
“infamous Leo,” and exhorting Acacius, as he celebrates mass, to sub-
stitute mentally for the names of Marcian, Pulcheria, and others whom
he is bound outwardly to commemorate, those of Dioscorus, Eudocia,
and other faithful persons.
As might naturally be expected, the Henoticon policy received
strenuous opposition in Rome, where Simplicius, the next pope but
one after Leo the Great, was determined to lose none of the ground
gained by his predecessors. After a very bitter and unsatisfactory
correspondence with Acacius, and two nugatory embassies to Con-
stantinople, Simplicius solemnly excommunicated the Patriarch of
Constantinople, as favourer of heretics, at a synod in Rome.
An
Acoemete monk took charge of the notification and fastened it to the
mantle of Acacius during service. A similar sentence was passed on
Mongus and on Zeno himself.
CH. XVII.
## p. 518 (#548) ############################################
518
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century [491–518
During the long period of the schism, a good many efforts were made
for the restoration of peace, which proved abortive by reason on the one
hand of the high demands of the Roman see, which always required the
erasure of the name of Acacius from the diptychs, and on the other, the
growth in power and assurance of Eastern Monophysitism. Anastasius,
Zeno's successor (491-518), generally bore a character for piety and
moderation, but towards the end of his life, when he was very aged,
appears to have been committed to a Monophysite policy. He seems at
least to have been regarded by the Monophysites of later days as friendly
to their party. He was influenced in this direction by a refugee of great
force of intellect and will, Severus the Pisidian, formerly a pagan and
a lawyer, later an uncompromising Monophysite, and head of the once
“headless party" to whom the Henoticon seemed not to go far enough.
Under his influence, the people of Constantinople were agitated by the
singing in church of the Trisagion with addition, while their rivals
shouted Peter's Theopaschite in its original form. Anastasius shewed
some firmness in withstanding the Roman demands, but he was un-
fortunate in his dealings with his own patriarchs. The first of these,
Euphemius, who was eager for peace with Rome, he degraded from
office, only to replace him by another advocate (Macedonius) of the same
cause, and after Macedonius in turn had been degraded, a patriarch was
appointed (Timotheus) who gave no confidence to either party. With
a large section of the people, Anastasius, in spite of his conscientious
devotion to duty, made himself intensely unpopular. He made a last
attempt to come to an agreement with Pope Hormisdas, but it failed in
the same way as previous efforts. The task of making terms with Rome
was left to his successor Justin, who became emperor in 518. A solemn
ceremony was held in rehabilitation of the Council of Chalcedon. Shortly
after, legates arrived from the Pope, and union was restored on the
condition, formerly refused, of the erasure of Acacius' name from the
diptychs. Strange to say the two patriarchs whom Anastasius had
displaced for their Romeward inclinations, were, in virtue of their
schismatic appointment, struck off likewise. Zeno and Anastasius
received a kind of post-mortem excommunication. All the leading
members of Monophysite and other heretical sects were anathematised.
The end of the schism can hardly be regarded as terminating the
series of controversies which are the subject of this chapter. East and
West were never again to be reunited with any cordiality. But now,
for a time, the outward dissension ceases, and in the struggle not far
distant with Vandals in Africa and Goths in Italy, the Empire repre-
sents the side of the Catholic Faith against either persecuting or tolerant
Arianism.
Meantime, in the East, the Henoticon and the semi-Monophysite
policy of the Emperors had far-reaching results. Mention has already
been made of the school of Edessa, once presided over by Ibas,
## p. 519 (#549) ############################################
489–578]
Nestorianism and Monophysitism in the East
519
and of the reaction in Osrhoene, after Ibas' death, in a Monophysite
direction. In 489 Zeno, regarding Edessa as still a hotbed of Nes-
torianism, closed the school there. The result was that a good many
scholars migrated across the Persian frontier to Nisibis where, as already
stated, Barsumas was bishop. In this city a very flourishing school was
founded, in which the works of the great Antiochene doctors, Diodorus
of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, might be studied in peace, and
where even the memory of Nestorius himself was honoured. The
great episcopal see of the Persian Church had since 410 been fixed at
Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and the bishop (catholicos) of that see was fairly
independent of those who, from his point of view, were regarded as the
“ western fathers” of the Syrian churches. Christians in Persia enjoyed
peace and patronage, with intermittent persecutions, under the great
kings of the Sassanid dynasty. It seems to have been part of the
Nestorian policy of Barsumas to convince the king that Monophysitism
meant inclination to side with the Empire whenever war broke out,
while Nestorianism was consistent with loyalty to Persia. Under these
circumstances, the Nestorian Church in Persia grew and flourished.
Beside its school at Nisibis, it had, in course of time, one at Seleucia.
Its character was greatly determined by its monastic institutions. Its
missionary zeal made itself felt in India and even in China. Altogether,
though the time of its greatness was not of very long duration, it
acquired, by its intellectual and religious activity, a very respectable
place among the Churches which the dissensions of the fifth century
alienated from Catholic Christendom.
While Christianity in Persia was becoming Nestorian, Syria was
becoming Monophysite. The whole story of the process does not
fall within our present limits, but it may be remarked that the
great organiser of the Monophysite communities, both in Egypt
and Syria, was Severus the Pisidian who held the see of Antioch from
512 till his deposition in 519, and whose active and productive life
ended about 540. The reorganiser of the Monophysite Church after
the persecution which followed the reunion of Rome and Constantinople
was Jacobus Baradaeus, who died about 578, and from whom the
Syrian Monophysites are sometimes called Jacobites. His history,
however, does not concern us here.
Historically viewed, the interest of these controversies lies not so
much in the motives by which they were inspired as in the dissolutions
and combinations to which they gave birth. The alienation of churches
seems in many cases to be at bottom the alienation of peoples and nations,
the religious difference supplying pretext rather than cause. And some-
times the asserted cause of the dispute is lost sight of when the difference
has been made permanent. So it was, apparently, with the Jacobite-
,
Syrian and the Nestorian-Persian Churches. Also we may notice that
the Christianity of the Copts has become more like a reversion, with
CH. XVII.
## p. 520 (#550) ############################################
520
Religious Disunion in the Fifth Century
differences, to the popular religion of the old Egyptians than an
elaboration of the principles of Cyril and Dioscorus. And again the
breach between Greeks and Latins was sure to break out again, however
often the ecclesiastical dispute which had served as the occasion of a
temporary alienation might be settled. The fruits of the disunion we
have been examining became evident enough in the days of the
Mahommedan invasions, yet had the actual occasions of the disunion
been entirely absent, we can hardly feel sure that a united Christendom
would have stood ready to repel the Saracen advance. Even if the
Empire had never lost its unity, it could hardly have retained in
permanent and loyal subordination the populations of Egypt and of
the East. They had been but superficially connected with Byzantium,
while, perhaps unconsciously, they remained under the sway of more
ancient civilisations than those of Hellas and of Rome.
## p. 521 (#551) ############################################
521
CHAPTER XVIII.
MONASTICISM.
CHRISTIAN Monasticism was a natural outgrowth of the earlier
Christian asceticism, which had its roots in the gospel. For it is now
recognised that such sayings as: “If thou wouldest be perfect, go sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor,. . . and come, follow me"; and :
“There are eunuchs, which made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake: he that is able to receive it, let him receive it”; and the
teaching of St Paul on celibacy, did as a matter of fact give an impetus to
the tendency so common in seriously religious minds towards the practice
of asceticism. These tendencies are clearly discernible among Christians
from the beginning; and not only among the sects, but also in the
great Church. Celibacy was the first and always the chief asceticism;
but fasting and prayer, and the voluntary surrender of possessions, and
also works of philanthropy, were recognised exercises of those who gave
themselves up to an ascetical life. This was done at first without
withdrawal from the world or abandonment of home or the ordinary
avocations of life. At an early date female ascetics received ecclesiastical
recognition among the virgins and widows, and there are grounds for
believing that at the middle of the third century there already were
organised communities of women--for in the Life of Anthony we are
told that before withdrawing from the world he placed his sister in a
Ilapdevớv or house of virgins, the name later used for a nunnery. At
this date there was nothing of the kind for men ; but, at any rate in
Egypt, the male ascetics used to leave their homes and dwell in huts in
the gardens near the towns. For when, c. 270, St Anthony left the
world, it was this manner of life he embraced at first.
St Anthony was born in middle Egypt about the year 250. When
he was twenty, on hearing in church the gospel text "If thou wouldest
be perfect," as cited above, he took the words as a personal call to
himself and acted on them, going to practise the ascetical life among
the ascetics who dwelt at his native place. After 15 years so spent,
he went into complete solitude, taking up his abode in a deserted
CH. XVIII.
## p. 522 (#552) ############################################
522
St Anthony. Antonian Monachism
fort at a place called Pispir, on the east bank of the Nile opposite the
Fayum, now called Der-el-Memun (c. 285). In this retreat Anthony
spent twenty years in the strictest seclusion, wholly given up to prayer
and religious exercises. A number of those who wished to lead an
ascetic life congregated around him, desiring that he should be their
teacher and guide. At last he complied with their wishes and came
forth from his seclusion, to become the inaugurator and first organiser
of Christian monachism.
This event took place about the beginning of the fourth century-
305 is the traditional date; only a few years later did Pachomius found,
in the far south, the first Christian monastery properly so called. It
will be convenient to trace separately the two streams of monastic
tradition that flowed respectively from the two great founders, Anthony
and Pachomius.
The form of monachism that drew its inspiration from St Anthony
prevailed throughout Lower or Northern Egypt. All along the Nile to
the north of Lycopolis (Asyut), and in the adjacent deserts, and on the
sea-board near Alexandria, there were at the end of the fourth century
vast numbers of monks, sometimes living alone, sometimes two or three
together, sometimes in large congregations--but even then the life was
semi-eremitical. Antonian monachism reached its greatest and most
characteristic development in the deserts of Nitria and Scete, and it is
here that we have the most abundant materials for forming a picture of
the life of these monks. Palladius and Cassian both lived in this district
for many years during the last decade of the fourth century; St Jerome,
Rufinus, and the writer of the Historia Monachorum visited it; and
they have left on record their impressions. Nitria, the present Wady
Natron, is a valley round some nitre lakes, lying out in the desert to
the west of the Nile, some 60 miles due south of Alexandria. Those
who began the monastic life here were Amoun and Macarius of Egypt,
himself a disciple of Anthony. A few miles from Nitria was the desert
called Cellia from the number of hermits' cells that studded it, and
further away still, out in the “utter solitude," was the monastic settle-
ment of Scete. Rufinus and the writer of the Historia Monachorum
describe Cellia : The cells stood out of sight and out of earshot of one
another; only on the Saturday and Sunday did the monks assemble for
the services; all the other time was spent in complete solitude, no one
ever visiting another except in case of sickness or for some spiritual
need. Palladius says that 600 lived in Cellia.
This was a purely eremitical life; but in Nitria it was otherwise.
The following is Palladius' account, as he saw it in 390.
“ In Mount Nitria 5000 monks dwell following different manners of
life, each according to his power and desire; so that anyone could live
alone, or with another, or with several. In the mountain there are seven
bakeries and a great church by which stand three palm trees, each with
AL
## p. 523 (#553) ############################################
Monachism in Nitria and Scete
523
a whip hanging from it; one is for the monks who misbehave themselves,
one for thieves, and one for chance comers : so that anyone who offended
and was judged worthy of stripes, embraced the palm tree and made
amends by receiving on the back the fixed number of blows. Close to
the church is the guest house, and any guest who comes is entertained
until he goes of his own accord, even if he stay for two or three years.
For the first week they let him stay in idleness, but after that they
make him work, either in the garden or the bake-house or the kitchen.
Or if he be a man of position they give him a book to read, but do not
allow him to have intercourse with anyone till noon. Physicians dwell
in this mountain, and confectioners; they use wine, and wine is sold.
They all make linen with their hands, so that they have no needs. And
about three in the afternoon one may stand and hear how the psalmody
arises from each habitation, and fancy oneself rapt aloft into Paradise.
But they assemble at the church only on Saturday and Sunday. ” Palladius
tells, too, of one Apollonius, a merchant, who became a monk in Nitria,
and being too old to learn a handicraft, purchased medicines and stores
at Alexandria and cared for all the brotherhood in their sicknesses, for
twenty years going the round of the cells from daybreak till three in
the afternoon,
knocking at the doors to see if anyone was sick : and of
another who on becoming a monk retained his money and devoted it
wholly to works of hospitality towards the poor, the aged and the
infirm, and was judged by the fathers to be equal in merit to his
brother, who had dispossessed himself of his belongings and given himself
up wholly to a life of strict asceticism.
What has been said will bring out the special feature of this type of
monasticism—its voluntariness : even when the monks lived together,
there was not any common life according to rule. A large discretion
was left to each one to follow his own devices in the employment of
his time and the practice of his asceticisms. In short, this form of
monachism grew out of the eremitical life, and it retained its eremitical
or semi-eremitical character even in the great monastic colonies of
Nitria and Scete.
We may now pass to the Pachomian monachism dominant in the
southern parts of Egypt. Pachomius was a pagan by birth; he was
born about 290, and became a Christian at the age of twenty. He
adopted the eremitical life under Palaemon, a hermit who lived by the
Nile in the diocese of Tentyra (Denderah). The legend of his call to
be the creator of Christian cenobitical life is thus told by Palladius.
“Pachomius was in an extraordinary degree a lover of mankind and
a lover of the brotherhood. While he was sitting in his cave an angel
appeared unto him and said: “Thou hast rightly ordered thy own life;
needlessly therefore dost thou sit in the cave; come forth and bring
together all the young monks and dwell with them, and legislate for
them according to the exemplar I will give thee. ' And he gave him
а
CH. XVIII.
## p. 524 (#554) ############################################
524
Pachomian Monachism
a brazen tablet whereon was engraved the Rule. ” There follows what
probably is the most authentic epitome of the earliest Christian Rule
for Monks.
St Pachomius founded his first monastery at Tabennisi near Denderah
c. 315-320, and by the time of his death in 346 his order counted nine
monasteries of men and one of women, all situated between Panopolis
(Akhmim) to the north and Latopolis (Esneh) to the south, and peopled
by some 3000 monks in all. After his death other monasteries were
founded, one at Canopus near Alexandria, and several in Ethiopia ; so
that by the end of the century Palladius tells us there were 7000
Pachomian or Tabennesiot monks—St Jerome's 50,000 may safely be
rejected.
Palladius visited the Pachomian monastery at Panopolis (Akhmim)
and has left us what is by far the most actual and living picture of
the daily life. He tells us that there were 300 monks in this monastery,
who practised all the handicrafts and out of their superabundance
contributed to the support of nunneries and prisons. . The servers of the
week got up at daybreak and some worked in the kitchen while others
laid the tables, getting them ready by the appointed hour, spreading on
them loaves of bread, mustard leaves, olive salad, cheeses, herbs chopped
up, and pieces of meat for the old and the sick. “And some come in and
have their meal at noon, and others at 1 or at 2 or at 3 or at 5, or in the
late evening, and others every second day. And their work was in like
fashion: one worked in the fields, another in the garden, another in the
smithy, another in the bakery, another at carpentry, another at fulling,
another at basket-making, another in the tanyard, another at shoe-
making, another at tailoring, another at calligraphy”; he mentions also
that they keep camels and herds of swine: he adds that they learn
by heart all the Scriptures. From the Rule it appears that they
assembled in the church four times a day, and approached Communion
on Saturday and Sunday.
Here we have a fully constituted and indeed highly organised
cenobitical life, the day being divided between a fixed routine of church
services, Bible reading, and work seriously undertaken as an integral
factor of the life. Herein lies one of the most significant differences
between Pachomian and Antonian monachisms. In the latter the
references to work are few, and the work is of a sedentary kind, commonly
basket-making and linen-weaving, which could be carried on in the cell ;
and the work was undertaken merely in order to supply the necessaries
of life, or to fill up the
time that could not be spent in actual prayeron
contemplation or the reading of the Bible. Palladius' picture of the
Pachomian monastery, on the other hand, is that of a busy, well-
organised, self-supporting agricultural colony, in which the daily religious
exercises only alternated with, and did not impede, the daily labour that
was so large an element of the life: and so this picture is of extraordinary
a
## p. 525 (#555) ############################################
Theory of Egyptian Monachism
525
value. Whatever may be thought of the life led by the hermits or
quasi-hermits of northern Egypt, there will hardly be two opinions as to
the strenuousness and virility of the ideal aimed at by. St Pachomius.
The Antonian ideal is the one that (even in accentuated forms) has been
in all ages dominant in the Easty and it was the form of monachism
first propagated throughout Western Europe. It was not the least
of St Benedict's contributions to Western monachism that he introduced,
with the modifications called for by differences of climate and national
character, a type of monachism more akin to the Pachomian, in which
work of one kind or another, undertaken for its own sake, forms an
essential part of the life.
Having thus traced in the briefest manner the external phenomena
of the earliest Christian monachism, we must say a word on its inner
spirit. The theory or philosophy of primitive Christian monachism
'finds its fullest expression in Cassian's Collations. These are 24 con-
ferences of considerable length, which purport to be utterances of
several of the most prominent of the Nitriot and Scetic monks, made in
response to queries and difficulties put by Cassian himself and his friend
Germanus, who lived for a number of years in Scete between 390 and
400. The Collations were not written till 25 years later, and the
question has been raised how far they reproduce actual discourses
uttered by the various monks named; or are compositions of Cassian's,
a literary device for presenting the teaching and ideas current in Scete.
In any case, there can be no reasonable doubt that they do faithfully
represent the substance and spirit of that teaching—and this is all that
is of historical importance. Cassian puts into the foreground, in his
first Collation, an exposition of the purpose or scope of the monastic
life: Abbot Moses declares it to be the attainment of Purity of Heart, so
that the mind may rest fixed on God and divine things: for this purpose
only are fastings, watchings, meditation of Scripture, solitude, privations
to be undertaken : such asceticisms are not perfection, but only the .
instruments of perfection. This conference supplies the key to the
fundamental conception of the monastic state. It is a systematic and
ordered attempt to exercise the tendencies symbolised by the terms
Mysticism and Asceticism—two of the most deeply rooted religious
instincts of the human heart, but which beyond most others need
regulation and control.
Egyptian monachism was probably at its
highest point of development about the year 400, just when Cassian and
Palladius came in contact with it. Without accepting the probably
apocryphal figures given by some of the authorities, there can be no
doubt that there were at that date very many thousands of monks in
Egypt. And the original enthusiasms and spirituality of the movement
still, on the whole, held sway. But with the fifth century the decay set
in, which has gone on progressively till our_day. The Egyptian monks,
who had been the great adherents of the Catholic faith in the Arian
CH. XVIII.
## p. 526 (#556) ############################################
526 Monachism in Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia
times, became the chief supporters of Dioscorus in making the Egyptian
Church Monophysite. As the Mahommedan invasion swept over Egypt
the monasteries were in great measure destroyed, and Egyptian monas-
ticism has ever since been gradually dying out; at the present day only
a few monasteries survive, and the institution is in a moribund condition,
unless some unlooked-for revival come about.
When we pass from Egypt to the oriental lands, we find that
in Palestine monastic life was introduced from Egypt by Hilarion early
in the fourth century. He had been a disciple of Anthony, and the life
he Ted in Palestine was purely eremitical. There are traces of cenobitic
monasteries in Palestine during the fourth century, especially those
established under Western influences—as by St Jerome and Paula, Rufinus
and the two Melanias. But the glimpses of Palestinian monachism
at the end of the century given us by Palladius in the Lausiac History,
reveal the fact that it remained in large measure eremitical
In Syria and Mesopotamia, whether in the Roman or in the Persian
territories, there was at the beginning of the fourth century what
appears to have been an indigenous growth of asceticism analogous
to the pre-monastic asceticism found in Egypt and elsewhere. The
institution was known as the “Sons of the Covenant," and the members
were bound to celibacy and the usual ascetical practices, but they were
not monks properly so called. We hear much of them from Aphraates
(c. 330); and Rabbula, bishop of Edessa a century later, wrote a code
of regulations for priests and Sons of the Covenant. As he wrote also
a Rule for monks, it seems clear that the Sons of the Covenant did not
develop into a monastic system, but the two institutions existed along-
side of each other till at any rate the middle of the fifth century. The
beginnings of monachism proper in the Syrian lands are difficult to
trace. It is probable that the story of Eugenius, who was said to have
introduced monasticism from Egypt in the early years of the fourth
century, must be rejected as legendary. Theodoret opens his Historia
Religiosa, or lives of the Syrian monks, with an account of one Jacob
who lived as a hermit near Nisibis before 325; but as this was a century
before Theodoret's time, the facts must remain somewhat doubtful.
He gives accounts of a number of Syrian monks in the end
of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth: most of
them were hermits; and even when disciples gathered around them,
the life continued to be strongly individualistic and eremitical. This
has continued to be the tendency of Syrian monachism, both Nestorian
and Monophysite. Cenobitical life was commonly only the first stage
of a monk's career; the goal aimed at was to be a hermit; after a few
years each monk withdrew to a cell at a distance from the monastery, to
live in solitude, frequenting the monastic church only on Sundays and
feasts. Rabbula's Admonitions for Monks (c. 425) are of great interest :
he lays down that no one is thus to become a hermit until he has been
:
## p. 527 (#557) ############################################
Character of Oriental Monachism
527
а
proved in a monastery for a considerable time. The following regulation
is of special interest: “Those who have been made priests and deacons
in the monasteries, and have been entrusted with churches in the villages,
shall appoint as superiors those who are able to rule the brotherhood;
and they themselves shall remain in charge of their churches. ” The
practice here indicated, of monks serving churches, is probably unique
in the East; it has been done in the West in later times, but has
always been regarded as abnormal.
Thus while in Egypt the tendency was to abandon the eremitical life
for the cenobitical, in Syria the opposite tendency set in. In another
respect, too, Syrian monachism developed aļong lines different from those
that prevailed in Egypt. Egyptian monks practised, it is true, austerities
,
and mortifications of the severest kind; but they were what may be
called natural, as prolonged abstinence from food and sleep, exposure to
heat and cold, silence and solitude, heavy labour and physical fatigue.
In Syria on the contrary austerities of a highly artificial character
became the vogue: the extraordinary life of the pillar hermits, who
abode for years on the summits of pillars, at once presents itself in
illustration. Theodoret and the other authorities speak as if it were a
common practice, that monks should carry continually fastened to their
backs great stones or iron weights—Rabbula forbids this except to
hermits. Sozomen tells us of a kind of Syrian monk called “Grazers,"
who used to go out into the fields at meal-times and eat grass
like cattle.
A good picture of the lines on which Syrian monachism settled down
after the sixth century is afforded by Thomas of Marga's “Book of the
Governors,” or history of the great Nestorian monastery of Beth Abhe
in Mesopotamia.
All the evidence shews that the ingrained oriental hankering after
asceticism, still found in Hindu fakirs, asserted itself in Syrian mona-
chism from the beginning, and it has there at all times been a characteristic
feature of the system.
Monasticism seems to have made its entry into Greek-speaking lands
from the East. It first appears in the Roman province of Armenia in
connexion with Eustathius of Sebaste, c. 330-340. The claim has been
.
made, indeed, that monasteries were established in Constantinople by
Constantine, but this must be regarded as legend; there probably were
none there before the end of the fourth century. The monasticism of
Eustathius was of a highly ascetical character, with strongly developed
Manichaean tendencies, which were condemned at the Council of Gangra,
c. 340. Similar in character, but carrying the same tendencies to still
greater extremes, were the Messalians or Euchitae, in Paphlagonia,
described by Epiphanius.
The real father of Greek monachism was St Basil. After spending
a year in visiting the monks of Egypt and Syria, he retired, c. 360, to a
lonely spot near Neocaesarea in Pontus, and there began to lead a
a
CH, XVIII.
## p. 528 (#558) ############################################
528
St Basil's Monastic Legislation
monastic life with the disciples who quickly gathered round him.
His
conception of the monastic life was in many important points a
new departure, and it proved epoch-making in the history of mona-
chism : it has continued to this day the fundamental conception of
Greek and Slavonic monasticism ; and St Benedict, though he borrowed
more in matter of detail from Cassian, in matter of principles and ideas
owed more to St Basil than to any other monastic legislator. Thus in
the monasticism of both East and West, St Basil's ideas still live on.
For this reason it will be proper to give a somewhat full account of his
monastic legislation. The materials are to be found chiefly in the two
sets of Rules (the Longer and the Shorter), the authenticity of which is
now recognised, and in certain of his Letters, supplemented by letters of
St Gregory Nazianzen to him.
St Basil's construction of the monastic life was fully cenobitical, in
this respect advancing beyond that of St Pachomius. In the Pachomian
system the monks dwelt in different houses within the monastery pre-
cincts; the meals were at different hours; and all assembled in the
church oply for the greater services. But St Basil established a common
roof, a common table, and common prayer always; so that we meet here
for the first time in Christian monastic' legislation the idea of the
cenobium, and common life properly so called.
