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Eastern attitudes to Rome during the Acacian schism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

W. H. C. Frend
W. H. C. Frend*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Extract

The Acacian schism which lasted from 484 to 519 has been regarded as a bitter affair, characterised by intransigence on both sides and ending in an unqualified disaster for the Byzantine church. A closer look at the evidence suggests that the rigid attitudes of popes Gelasius (494–8) and Hormisdas (514–23) were far from being reproduced on the Byzantine side even at moments of provocation, and among the populace as a whole its existence was for most of the time a matter of indifference. The eventual ending of the schism through the initiative of the emperor Justin I was not regarded in the east as involving a derogation of the rights of the eastern patriarchates and of the church at Constantinople in particular.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 13: The Orthodox Churches and the West , 1976 , pp. 69 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1976

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References

1 The element of triumph from the Roman point of view is indicated by Duchcsne, L., L’Eglise au vie siècle (Paris 1925) p 51 Google Scholar—’Un succès plus complet ne se peut imaginer’— and in sorrow by Bolotov, V., Lectures in the History of the Early Church 3, Christianskoe Chtenie (Petrograd 1915) pp 362-3Google Scholar (cited from A. A. Vasiliev, Justin the First, pp 165-8).

2 Vasiliev, A.A., Justin the First, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 1 (Cambridge, Mass., 1950) pp 161 seqGoogle Scholar. I am inclined to believe that there was a temporary collapse of the Byzantine position due perhaps to the personal weakness of the patriarch John, but that the situation was rapidly restored by the actions of Justin and his nephew Justinian. See Frend, [W. H. C.], [The Rise of the Monophysite Movement] (Cambridge 1972) pp 237-9Google Scholar.

3 Though in Alexandria only with the restored melkite patriarchs after 537.

4 Cod Just 1.2.16.

5 Acacii Epistula ad Simpliciutn, ed Schwartz, E., C[ollectio] V[eronensis] 4, publ in Publizistische] S[ammlungen zum acacianischen Schisma], ABAWV PhK, NS 10.4 (1934) no 4 pp 4–5 Google Scholar

6 Text given in Zacharias Rhetor, HE V. 6, ed Brooks, E. W., CSCO, Scriptores Syri, 3, 5 (Louvain 1919) pp 153-4Google Scholar, the association of Chalcedon with the semi-Arian council of Ariminum is interesting.

7 Referred to in Simplicius’ letters to Zeno and Acacius in June 479, C[ollectio] A[vellana] 66 and 67, ed O. Guenther, CSEL 35, I and 2 (1895).

8 Zacharias Rhetor, HE V.8. See Frend pp 177-80 (further references).

9 Simplicius to Acacius. CA 68 and 69: Miramur pariter.

10 CV 3, p 3-4.

11 Felix to Acacius, Mihi crede nescioquemadmodum te ecclesiae totius asseras esse principem. Schwartz, PS, p 73=C[ollectio] B[erolinensis] 21.

12 Felix to Acacius, Multarum transgressionum. CV 5, pp 6-7.

13 Felix, Ep 8. Schwartz, PS, p 81=CB 33.

14 For an account of the attitude of the popes towards the emperor and the Byzantine church at this period, see Caspar, F., Geschichte des Papstums, 2 vols (Tübingen 1930-3) 2, pp 35 seqGoogle Scholar.

14a HE VI 7.

15 Gelasius told Euphemius that he belonged to ‘an alien body’. Epp 2 and 3. See Frend pp 192-4.

16 Cited by pope Anastasius Ep 5 = CA 102, (The Libellus of the Alexandrian church).

17 Justin to Hormisdas, 9 Sept 520: Anastasius palam aperteque constituerit, cum ob hocidem scriberet negotium decessori nostro, satis esse pacem affectantibus, si nomen tantum reticeatur Acacii=CA 232, p 702.

18 CA 138, p 565.

18a Palladius, , Lausiac History, ed and tr Clarke, W.K. Lowther (London 1918) caps 41, 45, 4 and 46Google Scholar.

19 Plerophoria 89, PO 8.1 (Paris 1912) p 151.

l9a Thus, Murray, Robert, Symbols of Church and Kingdom (Cambridge 1975) pp 236-8Google Scholar.

20 Thus, the sixth book of the Select Letters [of Severus Patriarch of Antioch], ed Brooks, E. W. (London 1904) IV 3, p 258 Google Scholar.

21 Ibid bk V 6, p 296 (referring to pope Stephen and similarly bk V 3, p 284, referring to pope Julius).

22 Ibid p 297.

23 Ibid p 295.

24 Ibid bk V 1, p 279.

25 Ibid bk V 6, p 298.

26 Ibid bk V 3, p 285. It seems that Severus mistakenly thought Dionysius was bishop. See the note in Migne PL 8, col 928.

26a Text in Migne, PL 8, cols 953-9.

27 Briefly recorded in Altaner, B./Stuiber, A., Patrologie, Leben, Schriften und Lehre der Kirchenväter (Freiburg 1966) p 314 Google Scholar. It seems that no one since the editors of Migne PL 8 has given any exhaustive study to these documents, which would repay consideration.

28 Compare the style of Julius’s genuine letter to the Eusebians preserved in Athanasius Apologia Contra Arianos, cap 35, especially in the final paragraph, with the first paragraph of his letter to Dionysius, Miramur cum nonnullos . . . (PL 8 col 930).

29 Ad Prosdocium 1, ibid col 953.

30 Evagrius, HE bk 3, 31.

31 Letter from the Armenians to the orthodox in Persia, cited from Sarkissian, K., The Council of Chalcedon and the Armenian Church (London 1965) p 204 Google Scholar.

32 Ep 22, written c 520, ed E. W. Brooks, PO 12.2 (1916).

33 Select Letters VI. 1, pp 260-1.

34 CA 139. The western chronicler, Victor of Turmuna, (Chronicon ad ann 516) records that the monks in Palestine and Transjordan sent a similar letter to the emperor Anastasius, . MGH, AA Chronica Minora 2, ed Mommsen, T. (Berlin 1894) p 195 Google Scholar.

35 CA 147: ‘We expect your arrival without delay’. In case of some obstacle, the pope should send plenipotentiaries, but in any event speed was of the essence.

36 Mansi 8, col 1038.