Gregory the Great and his World

THE SCHISM

Gregory had to face the problems of a Church deeply divided. Even before his pontificate, as a deacon in his predecessor's service, he had to come to grips with the schism which had split the Italian Church since the second Council of Constantinople (553). The roots of the schism reached back into the christological debates settled, though by no means laid to rest, at Chalcedon in 451. The Chalcedonian definition did not find lasting consent everywhere. By the end of the fifth century fierce debate around it had again broken out. In 518 Justin I, a Latin speaker from Illyricum, ascended the imperial throne, to be followed by his nephew, Justinian, in 527. Under them the government became committed to the re-establishment of imperial unity. The old dream of an Empire re-united within its former territories, with a single law and a single faith, became a political programme. Of these, the reform of the law proved, in the event, the only lasting achievement. The establishment of a single orthodox faith accepted throughout the Empire proved elusive. It depended on reconciling Eastern dissidents, ‘monophysites’, especially in Syria and Egypt, to an interpretation of the Chalcedonian formula which would not alienate Western churchmen. In the century since 451 neo-Chalcedonian theologians had been refining their understanding of the formula adopted at Chalcedon. For many Eastern theologians the primary need was to banish any shadow of association with Nestorianism. Justinian struggled with the theological problems.