Overview
Theodosius was a military commander. Western Emperor Gratian appointed him as Eastern Emperor in January 379.
In the Christian Roman Empire, the Emperor was the Head of the Church and the ultimate judge in doctrinal disputes. The emperors controlled the Church because they believed a divided Church could divide the Empire. Consequently, the Church and State became one. Bishops received judicial authority but functioned under the authority of the Empire.
When Theodosius came to power, in what is known as the Meletian Schism, the Nicenes were divided between the Western view that the Father and Son are a single hypostasis (Person) and the Eastern (Cappadocian) view that the Son is a distinct hypostasis. (The view that God is both one and three (one Being but three Persons) did not yet exist.)
In 380, the emperors issued the Edict of Thessalonica jointly, requiring all to accept Western ‘one hypostasis’ theology. The Edict made this the sole legal religion of the Empire. It was not a Church Creed but a Roman Law applicable to all Roman citizens.
The Edict outlawed all other factions of Christianity, with threats of punishment. In the subsequent years, Theodosius eliminated opposing views through severe persecution, beginning before the Second Ecumenical Council of 381. He prohibited “heretics” from settling in cities, from owning or using churches, and from meeting for worship in towns or cities. He seized churches that belonged to ‘heretics’ and gave the buildings to Nicene bishops.
Theodosius acted as the Head of the Church. For example, he himself appointed the Bishop of Constantinople and decided which factions complied with his law.
Theodosius was the turning point after Arianism dominated most of the 4th century, not the Council of Constantinople of 381. Already in the year before that council, in February 380, Theodosius made Nicene Christianity the State Religion and outlawed Arianism. Therefore, only Nicene Christians were allowed to attend.
It was not even a Church meeting. It was a meeting of selected Church officials through which Theodosius ensured that his policies be implemented in the Church.
All previous emperors attempted to ensure unity. Theodosius succeeded through ferocious coercion. The Arian Controversy began soon after Christianity was legalized, and Roman persecution was suspended. But the Controversy ended when non-Nicene Christianity was outlawed, leading to a resurgence of Roman persecution, now Christian-on-Christian persecution.
Emperor Theodosius
Theodosius was a military commander. [Show More]
In 378, in the war on the Eastern Front, the previous Eastern Emperor (Valens) was killed, and a large part of the Roman Army was destroyed. In this time of crisis, the young Western Emperor Gratian made Theodosius, aged 32 or 33, the Eastern Emperor in January 379. [Show More]
Christian Emperors
This section does not discuss Theodosius specifically but rather the role of the emperors in the Christian Roman Empire in general.
The Emperor was the Head of the Church and the ultimate judge in doctrinal disputes. |
In the Christian Roman Empire, the emperors determined what the Church must believe. [Show More]
Emperors controlled the Church because a divided Church could divide the Empire. |
The Roman Emperors viewed religious disagreements as a menace because disunity in the Church also threatened the unity of the Empire. On the other hand, a unified Church helps to unify the Empire. For that reason, the emperors attempted to resolve disagreements, not to protect some doctrine. [Show More]
Church and State became one, functioning under the authority of the Emperor. |
Believing that the church must contribute to the social and moral strength of the empire, the emperors gave bishops a powerful place in the judicial system, equal to and even exceeding that of civil judges. In this way, the State and Church blended, and the hierarchy of bishops functioned as part of the Roman system of government. [Show More]
Theodosius’ Religious Policy
The Nicenes were divided between ‘one Person’ and ‘three Persons’ views. |
In the period leading up to Theodosius, in what is known as the Meletian Schism, a dispute in the fourth century between two Pro-Nicene groups, the two most prominent Pro-Nicenes of that era found themselves in opposition. While Athanasius supported the view that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are a single hypostasis (Person), Basil of Caesarea maintained three hypostases; three distinct Being:
The Western pro-Nicenes, led by Athanasius (died 373), Damasus of Rome, and Peter of Alexandria, believed that Father, Son, and Spirit are a single Person (hypostasis). See here for a discussion of Athanasius’ view. He presented himself as the preserver of Biblical orthodoxy. In reality, if Sabellianism is defined as the belief that the Father and Son are one hypostasis (a single Person), he was a Sabellian because he believed that the Son is part of the Father. [Show More]
The Eastern pro-Nicenes (the Cappadocians) maintained that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct Persons (three equal hypostases). See here for a discussion of Basil’s view. In the orthodox Trinity doctrine, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one Being (one indivisible substance). However, Basil of Caesarea, a prominent pro-Nicene, taught that they are three distinct Beings (three substances).
It is called the Meletian Schism because it manifested particularly in a dispute over the rightful bishop of Antioch; Meletius, who believed the Son is a distinct Person, or Paulinus, who thought the Father and Son are a single Person. Therefore, the main issue was the number of divine hypostases. [Show More]
The view that God is both one and three (one Being but three Persons) did not yet exist. |
During the Arian Controversy, while some claimed that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three Persons (three hypostases), others held that they are one Person (one hypostasis). The concept that God is both one and three resulted from later theological theorizing. [Show More]
The emperors issued the Edict of Thessalonica jointly. |
In 380, the year after he became emperor and the year before the Council of Constantinople, Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica jointly with the Western Emperor Gratian, implying that it applied throughout the Empire. [Show More]
The Edict required all to accept Western ‘one hypostasis’ theology. |
The Edict shows that the emperors adopted the Western ‘one hypostasis’ view:
(1) While the Cappadocians believed in three hypostases, the Edict describes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as “the single deity.” (Ayres, 251) [Show More]
(2) The Edict identifies “Damasus, bishop of Rome, and Peter, Athanasius’ successor in Alexandria” (Ayres, p. 251) as norms of its theology. By then, Athanasius was dead, and Damasus and Peter were the leaders of Western ‘one Person’ theology. [Show More]
(3) The Nicene term homoousios (same substance) can mean ‘one substance,’ which is how the Westerners understood it, or it can mean two distinct substances of the same type, which is how the Cappadocians understood it. (See Basil) Theodosius’ second decree a year later, in January 381, explicitly describes the Father, Son, and Spirit as a single undivided substance, which was the Western understanding. [Show More]
However, Ayres thinks Theodosius’ later decrees were more in tune with Cappadocian theology. [Show More]
The Edict made this the sole legal religion of the Empire. |
Theodosius did not unite Church and State. It was already united. However, there was a division between the Western and Eastern Churches, supported by the views of the Western and Eastern emperors. But Theodosius, the Eastern Emperor, became convinced of the Western view and made it the only legal religion, outlawing all other factions. It was not a Church Creed and was not addressed to Christians. It was an official Roman law, applicable to all Roman citizens. [Show More]
The Edict outlawed all other factions of Christianity, with threats of punishment. |
The Edict of Thessalonica determined that only Nicene Christians could call themselves “catholic” and call their places of worship “churches.” It described all other people as heretics, “foolish madmen,” and “out of their minds and insane.” [Show More]
That edict authorized imperial punishment for “heretics.” [Show More]
Theodosius eliminated opposing views through severe persecution. |
Through severe persecution, both before and after the Council of Constantinople, Theodosius eliminated ‘Arianism’ from among the ruling class and elite of the Eastern Empire.
In subsequent years, Theodosius implemented the Edict of Thessalonica through further decrees. In January 381, still before the 381 Council, Theodosius prohibited “heretics” from settling in cities, from owning or using churches, and from meeting for worship in towns or cities. [Show More]
Theodosius’ third decree, issued in 382 (the year after the Council of Constantinople), seized churches that belonged to ‘heretics’ and gave the buildings to Nicene bishops. This caused great disturbances and riots. [Show More]
The Controversy began when persecution ended and ended when persecution resumed. |
The Arian Controversy began soon after Christianity was legalized, and Roman persecution of the Church was suspended. But the Controversy ended when non-Nicene Christianity was outlawed, leading to a resurgence of Roman persecution, now manifesting as Christian-on-Christian persecution.
Head of the Church.
Theodosius acted as Head of the Church.
He himself appointed the Bishop of Constantinople. |
Having announced the State Religion of the Roman Empire, Theodosius assumed complete and unilateral control of who the leading bishops would be:
At the time, the incumbent bishop of Constantinople was an Arian (a Homoian – Demophilus). In the same year that the Edict was issued, two days after Theodosius had arrived in Constantinople, on 24 November 380, and still before the Council of Constantinople, he expelled Demophilus and also chased Lucius, who was at that time bishop of Alexandria, out of that city. [Show More]
Theodosius appointed Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Cappadocian Fathers and the leader of the relatively small Nicene community in the city, as bishop of Constantinople. When Gregory resigned, Theodosius made an unbaptized government official both chair of the Council of Constantinople and the bishop of Constantinople.
He himself decided which factions complied. |
Theodosius not only defined the Empire’s official faith, he required all Christian factions to submit their theologies in writing to him, and he decided which complied. [Show More]
He perfected the unity of Church and State. |
The Nicene Church, with its hierarchy of bishops, became part of the Empire; the religious arm of the Empire. [Show More]
Turning Point
Theodosius, not the Council, was the turning point after Arianism dominated most of the 4th century. |
In the traditional account of the Arian Controversy, at the Second Ecumenical Council (the Council of Constantinople of 381), the Church finally accepted Nicene theology and rejected Arianism, which dominated the Church for most of the 4th century.
In reality, already in the year before that council, in February 380, the Roman Emperor Theodosius, through Roman Law – the Edict of Thessalonica – made Nicene Christianity the State Religion of the Roman Empire and outlawed and criminalized Arianism.
The Second Ecumenical Council was not ecumenical. |
‘Ecumenical’ means it represents all Christian Churches and views, but this meeting was certainly not ecumenical. Since Theodosius had already made Nicene Christianity the State Religion of the Empire, banished the previous Homoian bishop of the capital, replaced him with a pro-Nicene theologian, and outlawed all non-Nicene views, with the threats of punishment, only Nicene Christians were allowed to attend. Not even Homoiousians, the Arian faction most similar to the Nicenes, were allowed. [Show More]
Furthermore, Theodosius summoned the so-called ‘ecumenical’ Council of Constantinople of the year 381, not the church. It was not a Church meeting. It was a meeting of selected Church officials through which Theodosius ensured that his policies be implemented in the Church.
Gregory resigned during the council. To ensure complete control of the Council, Theodosius then took the unprecedented step of appointing an unbaptized government official (Nectarius) as chairperson and as bishop of Constantinople, the capital of the Empire. (Hanson, p. 322) [Show More]
The fact that this Council is classified as the Second Ecumenical Council exemplifies how the traditional account of the Arian Controversy is distorted. [Show More]
All previous emperors attempted to ensure unity. Theodosius succeeded through ferocious coercion. |
All or most emperors sought unity in the church because division would threaten the unity of the Empire as well. However, all previous emperors failed to achieve lasting unity. We may ask why Theodosius succeeded where others failed. All emperors manipulated councils and exiled bishops, but only Theodosius:
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- Made a law to define the only legal theology,
- Formally outlawed other views with threats of punishment,
- Appointed bishops unilaterally.
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Furthermore, Theodosius’s persecution far exceeds that of the previous emperors in ferocity. [Show More]
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FOOTNOTES
- 1Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and its legacy, An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology, 2004
- 2Bishop R.P.C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God – The Arian Controversy 318-381, 1987
- 3(Ehler, Sidney Zdeneck; Morrall, John B (1967). Church and State Through the Centuries: A Collection of Historic Documents with Commentaries. p. 6-7.)
- 4(Ehler, Sidney Zdeneck; Morrall, John B (1967). Church and State Through the Centuries: A Collection of Historic Documents with Commentaries. p. 6-7.)
- 5(Boyd, William Kenneth (1905). The Ecclesiastical Edicts of the Theodosian Code. Columbia University Press. P45-46)
- 6Quoted by Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God, 1999, p. 223