Fourth Century

Freedom, Bible, Creed, Doctors

            After the Great Persecution of Diocletian (305) failed, freedom of the Church began and persecution of the Church ended by decree of Emperor Constantine (313). Church buildings flourished after legalization of the Church. Often its great basilicas were built on the sites of formerly pagan temples. Paganism didn't give up without a battle. Emperor Julian (361-363) attempted unsuccessfully to reestablish paganism. Christianity was officially made the state religion under emperor Theodosius IX in the year 381. This was a mixed blessing because some emperors sought control of the Church.

            St. Jerome, born in 347, translated the Bible to the vulgar (common) language, Latin, the Vulgate. The Canon (list of approved books) of the Bible was declared by Pope Saint Damasus I in 382 at the Council of Rome. The Bible was made available only in this form until the Protestant Reformation.

            The first Ecumenical Council (a conference of the bishops of the whole Church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice) was held in Nicea in 325. It repudiated Arianism and Quartodecimanis, and adopted the Nicene Creed. This Creed clearly stated what all Christians were to believe.

            The Capital of the Roman Empire moved to Constantinople in 323. Missionaries took the Gospel to the Goths in 348. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea with his Church History became the first significant church historian and gives us invaluable documentation on the early church. St. Augustine converted in 386. He would become one of the most important theologians in all of church history. In 395 he became the bishop of Hippo. Great Doctors of the Church (Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril, John Crysostom, Gregory Nazianzus) arise to defend it from various heresies.

Saints:

Saint Damasus I: the Pope who gave us the Canon of the Scriptures, the books that make the Bible.

Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church:  translated the Bible into the Latin Vulgate
Saint Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church, converted from Manichaeism, wrote The City of God and Confessions.

Saint Helen: Constantine’s mother who found the true cross.

Saint Monica: St. Augustine’s mother who never gave up praying for his conversion.
Saint Anthony of Egypt: Father of the monastic movement, greatest of the desert fathers
Saint Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, bishop of Milan, who helped with St. Augustine’s conversion.
Saint Athanasius, Greek Doctor of the Church, defender of Christ’s divinity, orthodoxy.
Saint Basil the Great, Greek Doctor of the Church, fought against Arianism.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church: exiled and persecuted by the Arians  
Saint John Crysostom (golden-mouthed), Greek Doctor of the Church: a great preacher who suffered for his conflicts with empress Eudoxia.

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of the Church: presented the best defense of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

St. Martin of Tours: saw Jesus in a beggar, and from a soldier he became a hermit and bishop.

Heresies:

            Donatists: founded by Donatus, the Great, a bishop who held that the true Church consisted only of the elect, themselves, and declared baptism to be invalid unless conferred by a Donatist. He also taught that the effectiveness of the sacraments depends on the moral character of the minister.  In other words, if a minister who was involved in a serious enough sin were to baptize a person, that baptism would be considered invalid.

            Arians: The strongest heretical sect in the early Church. Arius, an Alexandrian priest, proclaimed Jesus was a lesser, created being, denied the divinity of Christ and consequently Virgin Mary was not the Mother of God. The Council of Nicea was convened to condemn the heresy. Arius taught that only God the Father was eternal and too pure and infinite to appear on the earth.  Therefore, God produced Christ the Son out of nothing as the first and greatest creation.  The Son is then the one who created the universe.  Because the Son relationship of the Son to the Father is not one of nature, it is, therefore, adoptive. God adopted Christ as the Son.  Though Christ was a creation, because of his great position and authority, he was to be worshipped and even looked upon as God.  Some Arians even held that the Holy Spirit was the first and greatest creation of the Son.  At Jesus' incarnation, the Arians asserted that the divine quality of the Son, the Logos, took the place of the human and spiritual aspect of Jesus, thereby denying the full and complete incarnation of God the Son, second person of the Trinity.
            Macedonians: Macedonius, a bishop, denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
            Appollinarists: Apollinaris was a great Bishop, but taught that Christ was divine but not human. Condemned in the Council of Constantinople in 381. Apollinarianism was the heresy taught by Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea in Syria about 361.  He taught that the Logos of God, which became the divine nature of Christ, took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of Christ was a glorified form of human nature.  In other words, though Jesus was a man, He did not have a human mind but that the mind of Christ was solely divine.  Apollinaris taught that the two natures of Christ could not coexist within one person.  His solution was to lessen the human nature of Christ. This heresy denies the true and complete humanity in the person of Jesus which in turn, can jeopardize the value of the atonement since Jesus is declared to be both God and man to atone.  He needed to be God to offer a pure and holy sacrifice of sufficient value and He needed to be a man in order to die for men.  Jesus is completely both God and man.  This is known as the Hypostatic Union.    

            Jovinians: Jovinianus, a monk, denied the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Condemned by Pope Siricius in a Council held at Rome in the year 390, and soon after in another Council held by St. Ambrose in Milan.

            Vigilantians: Vigilantius, a priest, condemned the veneration of images and relics; the invocation of the Saints; the celibacy of the clergy; and monasticism: and held it useless to pray for the dead.