Apollinarism

The New Testament canon as it is today is first listed in 367 by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in a letter written to his churches in Egypt, Festal Letter 39.

Damasus, who had served as an assistant deacon to Liberius since his installation in 352, wins the support of the Roman people to become pope on October 1, 366, following the death of Antipope Felix II.

Of Spanish descent, Damasus, uneasy at the growing power of Constantinople, attempts to strengthen his position by insisting on the apostolic foundations of the Roman see.

An adherent of orthodoxy, he works to suppress Arianism and other church heresies.

Two synods held in 368 and 369 had condemned the unorthodox teachings of Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople and of Bishop Apollinaris (the Younger) of Laodicea.

Among Damasus' literary remains are twenty-four anathemas against various fourth-century heresies.

With a view to the elimination of Arianism in the East, he enters into lengthy negotiations with Basil, who, as the new bishop of Caesarea, is head of the church throughout most of Anatolia (Turkey).

Their dealings are not a success: though united against Arianism, they fail to agree on policies.

Valentinian does, however, legislate in favor of Rome‘s university, the nursery of imperial officials, by his law of 370.

In this year, laws of Valentinian and Valens ban marriages between Romans and barbarians under penalty of death; an edict issued by both emperors bans the importation of wine and olive oil from areas controlled by the barbarians.

Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus), born at Stridon on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia of a well-to-do Christian family, had gone with his friend Bonosus to Rome to further his intellectual interests.

There, Jerome had acquired a knowledge of classical literature and had been baptized in 361 at the age of 19.

After several years in Rome, he had begun to develop theological interests with others similarly inclined to asceticism, and had gone with Bonosus to Trier, "on the semi-barbarous banks of the Rhine," where he seems to have first taken up theological studies, and where he copied, for his friend Rufinus, Hilary's commentary on the Psalms and the treatise De synodis.

Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia where he made many Christian friends.

Some of these accompanied him when he set out at about 373 on a journey through Thrace and Asia Minor into northern Syria.

Finding a warm reception in Antioch, where he makes the longest stay, continuing the pursuit of his humanistic and monastic studies, two of his companions die and he himself is seriously ill more than once.

During one of these illnesses (about the winter of 373-374), he has a vision in which he is accused, in a dream, of being "a Ciceronian, not a Christian."

This makes him determined him to lay aside his secular studies and devote himself to the things of God.

His close friend and translator Rufinus will later suggest, however that this vow was not strictly kept, but in any case, Jerome seems to have abstained for a considerable time from the study of the classics and to have plunged deeply into that of the Bible, under the impulsion of Apollinaris of Laodicea, at this time teaching in Antioch and not yet suspected of heresy.

Apollinaris had collaborated with his father Apollinaris the Elder in reproducing the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry, and the New Testament after the fashion of Platonic dialogues, when the emperor Julian had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.

He is best known, however, as a noted opponent of Arianism.

Teaching that human beings are composed of body, soul, and spirit, his eagerness to emphasize the deity of Jesus and the unity of his person has led him so far as to deny the existence of a rational human soul (νους, nous) in Christ's human nature, this being replaced in him by the logos, or the second person of the Trinity, so that his body was a glorified and spiritualized form of humanity.

Over against this the orthodox or Catholic position maintains that Christ assumed human nature in its entirety including the νους, for only so could He be example and redeemer.

It is alleged that the system of Apollinaris is really Docetism, that if the Godhood without constraint swayed the manhood there was no possibility of real human probation or of real advance in Christ's manhood.

The anti-Arian bishop Meletius of Antioch remains in exile as ordered by the Eastern emperor Valens.

The bishops of Alexandria and Rome, viewing the presbyter Paulinus as more orthodox than Meletius, had taken the side of the former; Basil of Caesarea had been the latter’s principal supporter.

A further complication had been added when, in 375, the heretical bishop Apollinaris of Laodicea consecrated Vitalius, one of Meletius' presbyters, as bishop.

Meanwhile, under the influence of his situation, Meletius has been more and more approximating to the views of Nicene Creed.

Basil, throwing over the cause of Meletius’ predecessor Eustathius, deposed as an Homousian heretic by the synod of Melitene, championed that of Meletius who, when after the death of Valens he returns in triumph to his diocese, is hailed as the leader of Eastern orthodoxy.

As such, he presides in October 379 over the great synod of Antioch, in which the dogmatic agreement of East and West is established.

Jerome, returning in this year to Antioch, had heard the teachings of Apollinaris and been admitted to the priesthood by Paulinus, apparently with some unwillingness and on condition that he still continue his ascetic life.

Soon afterward, he goes to Constantinople to pursue his study of Scripture under the instruction of Gregory Nazianzen.

The Nicene Creed prescribed in 380 is again defined at the beginning of 381 and ecclesiastically sanctioned, as it were, in the summer of this year by a church council summoned to Constantinople by Theodosius, chiefly to confront Arianism.

Meletius of Antioch presides but dies during the Council; Gregory of Nyssa, whose brother Basil had died early in 379, delivers Meletius’s funeral oration.

The Council, attended by more than 150 bishops, all from the Eastern portion of the empire, reaffirms the Nicene Creed, firmly rejecting Arianism, as well as Modalism and Monarchianism.

Apollinarianism, which had been opposed by Basil, together with Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Athanasius because of the doctrine’s implication that Christ was not fully human, is also condemned, as are the Eunomians, as the followers of Eunomius’s extreme brand of Arianism have become known.

In formulating the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the Council defines the position of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity, describing the Holy Spirit as proceeding from God the Father.

It follows Athanasius in affirming the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, declaring them separate persons but coequal and of one substance.

The council’s canons establish the authority of the metropolitan bishops over their dioceses and give the bishop of the capital a primacy similar to that of the bishop of Rome.

It also deposes Constantinople’s Arian bishop, Maximus.

Gregory of Nazianzus, who has influenced Jerome during the three years he has spent in Constantinople, plays a leading role at the council, but opposition to his claim to the Maximus’ vacated bishopric makes him decide to return to Nazianzus.

The gathering, considered the second ecumenical council, universally imposes the Nicaean faith: Christianity as preached by Peter is to be the sole official religion of the Roman Empire; orthodoxy is defined as the doctrines proclaimed by the bishops of Rome and Alexandria.

The Council’s new theological formulas persuade most Arians to convert to orthodoxy.

Theodosius seeks new possibilities for coexistence, recognizing after a series of costly and inconclusive campaigns that the barbarians can no longer be expelled from the provinces by force and that he can count on Gratian for only limited assistance.

This had resulted in the friendly reception, in 381, of Therving chieftain Athanaric (who died at Constantinople a fortnight after his arrival) and the conclusion of an unprecedented treaty of alliance, or foedus, with the main body of the Thervings in the fall of 382.

Pledging themselves to lending military assistance, the Goths are assigned territory for settlement between the lower Danube and the Balkan mountains.

Under this novel arrangement, an entire people is to be settled on imperial soil while retaining its autonomy.

Theodosius may hope that these Goths will become integrated, as had a group of Goths who in around 350 had settled near Nicopolis in Moesia; their leader, Bishop Ulfilas, undertakes missionary work among the parties to the foedus of 382.

Gregory of Nazianzus, resigning his office in 384 for the sake of peace in the Church, returns to his native region, turning his attention to the incursion of Apollinarian heretics into the flock of Nazianzus, then again retires to monastic life.