March 520-535 A.D. Epiphanius—Constantinople’s 53rd; Installed under orthodox Emperor Justin I
March
520-535 A.D. Epiphanius—Constantinople’s
53rd; Installed under
orthodox Emperor Justin I; Military Generals Suppress Pagan Books, Images,
& Idols; Imprison Pagans; Elected by Consent of Bishops, Monks, &
People; Episcopal Elections Regulated;
Reaffirms Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus &
Chalcedon; Emperor Justin I’s Rigors
Annoying Italy’s Theodoric the Great, an Ostrogothic King & Arian
Epiphanius of
Constantinople
Biography
The Byzantine Empire was now rising to great splendour through the
victories of its generals, Belisarius and Narses. Idolatry was universally suppressed, pagan books were burnt and images destroyed, the professors of the old religion
imprisoned and flogged. At Constantinople the zeal of Justinian I for a church policy was shown during the
patriarchate of Epiphanius by laws (e.g. in 528 and 529) regulating episcopal
elections and duties. These enactments, and the passivity of Epiphanius and his
clergy, show the absence as yet for exclusively clerical legislation for the
spirituality.[1]
References
Epiphanius of
Constantinople
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Epiphanius (died June 5, 535) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from February 25, 520 to June 5, 535, succeeding John II Cappadocia.
Biography
The first conspicuous office
of Epiphanius was the charge of the catechumens at Constantinople. In 519, the year before his
election, he was sent with John II and count Licinius to Macedonia to receive the documents "libellos," or
subscriptions of those who wished reunion with the Catholic Church, at the
request of the apocrisiarius of Dorotheus, bishop of Thessalonica.[1]
On 25 February 520, he was
elected bishop by the Byzantine Emperor Justin I, with the consent of bishops, monks, and people. He is described in the
letter of the synod of Constantinople to Pope Hormisdas as "holding the right faith, and maintaining a
fatherly care for orphans".[2]
He accepted the conditions of
peace between East and West concluded by his predecessor, Patriarch John II
with Pope Hormisdas; ratifying them at a council at Constantinople, where he
accepted also the decrees of Chalcedon. Dioscorus, agent of Hormisdas at Constantinople, writes of
his fair promises, but adds, "What he can fulfil we don't know. He has not
yet asked us to communion".[3] Four letters remain of Epiphanius to Hormisdas,
telling him of his election, sending him his creed, and declaring that he
condemned all those whose name the pope had forbidden to be recited in the
diptychs.[1]
Epiphanius adopted the symbol
of Nicaea, the decrees of Ephesus, Constantinople, and
Chalcedon, and the letters of pope Leo I in defence of the faith. His second letter was
accompanied by a chalice of gold surrounded with precious stones, a patina of gold, a chalice of silver, and two veils of silk, which he presented to
the Roman church. In order to make the peace general, he advised the pope not
to be too rigorous in exacting the extrusion of the names of former bishops
from diptychs. His excuse for the bishops of Pontus, Asia, and the East is composed in very beautiful language. The answers of
Hormisdas are given in the Acts of the Council of Constantinople held under Mennas, in which he states his trust in the prudence and experience of
Epiphanius, and recommends lenity towards the returning, severity to the
obdurate. Epiphanius is to complete the reunion himself.[4]
The severe measures by which
Justin was establishing the supremacy of the Catholics in the East were
arousing Theodoric the
Great, the Ostrogothic and Arian master of Italy, to retaliation in the West. Pope John I, the successor of Hormisdas, became alarmed; and in 525,
at the demand of Theodoric, proceeded to Constantinople to obtain the
revocation of the edict against the Arians and get their churches restored to
them (Marcellinus
Comes).[5]
Great honor was paid to pope
John in the eastern capital. The people went out twelve miles to receive him,
bearing ceremonial tapers and crosses. The emperor Justin prostrated himself
before him, and wished to be crowned by his hand. The patriarch Epiphanius
invited him to perform Mass; but the pope, mindful of the traditional policy of
encroachment, refused to do so until they had offered him the first seat. With
high solemnity he said the office in Latin on Easter Day, communicating with
all the bishops of the East except Patriarch Timothy of Alexandria,
the declared enemy of Chalcedon.[6]
In 531 the dispute between
Rome and Constantinople was revived by the appeal of Stephen, metropolitan of Larissa, to Pope Boniface II, against the sentence of Epiphanius. Stephen was
eventually deposed, notwithstanding his appeal.[1]
Epiphanius died after an
episcopate of 14 years and 3 months.[7] All that is known of him is to his advantage.
Besides his letters to Hormisdas, we have the sentence of his council against Severus of
Antioch and Peter Mongus.[8] Forty-five canons are attributed to him.[9]
References
4.
Jump up^ Sinclair 1911 cites Labbe, Concil. iv. 1534, 1537, 1545, 1546, 1555, ed. 1671; Patr. Lat. lxiii. 497, 507, 523.
6.
Jump up^ Sinclair 1911 cites Baron. 525, 8, 10; Pagi, ix. 349, 351; AA. SS. May 27; Schröckh, xvi. 102, xviii. 214-215; Edward Gibbon, iii. 473; Milman, Lat. Christ. i. 302.
Attribution
·
This article incorporates text from a
publication now in the public domain: Sinclair, W. M. (1911). "Epiphanius, patriarch of Constantinople". In Wace, Henry; Piercy, William C. Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the
End of the Sixth Century (third ed.). London: John Murray.
This article incorporates text from a
publication now in the public domain: Sinclair, W. M. (1911). "Epiphanius, patriarch of Constantinople". In Wace, Henry; Piercy, William C. Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the
End of the Sixth Century (third ed.). London: John Murray.
·
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Patriarch of Constantinople
520–535 |
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