A new movement took shape in the late 3rd and 4th centuries that was a response to both the tragedy of the final persecutions and to the triumph of Constantine’s conversion. Monasticism began in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century in response to contemporary social conditions, but it had scriptural roots and reflected the attraction of the ascetic life that had long been part of the Christian and philosophical traditions. The first of the Christian monks was St. Anthony (251–356). Communal, or cenobitic, monasticism was first organized by St. Pachomius (c. 290–346), who also composed the first monastic rule. Basil" class="md-crosslink">St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea Cappadociae (370–379), rejected the hermetic ideal, insisting on communities with a rule safeguarding the bishop’s authority and with concrete acts of service to perform (e.g., hospital work and teaching).
Monasticism quickly spread to the West, where it was decisively shaped by St. John Cassian of Marseille (c. 360–435) and St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–c. 547), recognized as the father of Western monasticism. Benedict’s Rule, which eventually became predominant, was noted for its humanity and its balance of prayer and work. Because the manual work of monks often consisted of the copying of manuscripts, the monasteries became a great centre of cultural life for centuries. Benedict’s contemporary Cassiodorus (c. 490–c. 585) had the works of Classical authors copied (e.g., Cicero and Quintilian) as well as Bibles and the works of the early Church Fathers.
The church was significantly slow to undertake missionary work beyond the frontiers of the empire. The Goth Ulfilas converted the Goths to Arian Christianity (c. 340–350) and translated the Bible from Greek to Gothic—omitting, as unsuitable, warlike passages of the Old Testament. The Goths passed their Arian faith on to other Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals. (Sometime between 496 and 508 the Franks, under their great king Clovis, became the first of the Germanic peoples to convert to Catholic Christianity, and they were soon followed by the Visigoths.) In the 5th century the Western provinces were overrun by Goths, Vandals, and Huns, and the imperial succession was ended when a German leader, Odoacer, decided to rule without an emperor (476). The position of the papacy was enhanced by the decline of state power, and this prepared the way for the popes’ temporal sovereignty over parts of Italy (which they retained from the 7th to the 19th century; Vatican City’s independent sovereignty was recognized in 1929). Theological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries Western controversies
Until about 250, most Western Christian leaders (e.g., Irenaeus and Hippolytus) spoke Greek, not Latin. The main Latin theology came primarily from such figures as Tertullian and Cyprian (bishop of Carthage, 248–258) rather than from any figure in Rome. Tertullian wrote Against Praxeas, in which he discussed the doctrines of the Trinity and the person of Christ. But in 251 Novatian’s schism at Rome diverted interest away from speculative theology to juridical questions about the membership of the church and the validity of sacraments. Differences of opinion over similar issues in the 4th century led to a schism between Rome and the churches of North Africa. The Donatist controversy, which raised questions about the validity of the sacraments, dominated all North African church life. Cyprian and the Donatists said that the validity of the sacraments depended on the worthiness of the minister, while Rome and North African Christians in communion with Rome said that it did not, because the sacraments received their validity from Christ, not man. Much of the great theologian Augustine’s energies as bishop of Hippo (from 396 to 430) went into trying to settle the Donatist issue, in which he finally despaired of rational argument and reluctantly came to justify the use of limited coercion.
The other major controversy of the Western church was a more confused issue—namely, whether faith is acquired through divine grace or human freedom. In response to his perception of the teachings of the British monk Pelagius, St. Augustine ascribed all credit to God. Pelagius, however, protested that Augustine was destroying human responsibility and denying the capacity of humans to do what God commands. Augustine, in turn, responded in a series of treatises against Pelagius and his disciple Julian of Eclanum. Pelagianism was later condemned at the councils of Carthage (416), Milevis (416), and Ephesus (431) and by two bishops of Rome, St. Innocent I in 416 and Honorius I in 418. Henry Chadwick The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Eastern controversies
In the Greek East the 4th century was dominated by the controversy over the position of Arius, an Alexandrian presbyter (c. 250–336), that the incarnate Lord—who was born, wept, suffered, and died—could not be one with the transcendent first cause of creation, who is beyond all suffering. The Council of Nicaea (325) condemned Arianism and affirmed the Son of God to be identical in essence with the Father. Because this formula included no safeguard against Monarchianism, a long controversy followed, especially after Constantine’s death (337). Athanasius" class="md-crosslink">St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria (reigned 328–373), fought zealously against Arianism in the East and owed much to Rome’s support, which only added to the tensions between East and West. These tensions survived the settlement of the Arian dispute in 381, when the Council of Constantinople (381) proclaimed Catholic Christianity the official religion of the empire, thus eliminating Arianism in the East, but also asserted Constantinople, as the new Rome, to be the second see of Christendom. This assertion was unwelcome to Alexandria, traditionally the second city of the empire, and to Rome, because it implied that the dignity of a bishop depended on the secular standing of his city. Rivalry between Alexandria and Constantinople led to the fall of Chrysostom" class="md-crosslink">St. John Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople (reigned 398–404), when he appeared to support Egyptian monks who admired the controversial theology of Origen. It became a major feature of the emerging controversy over Christology, church teaching regarding the nature of Christ.
The Christological controversy stemmed from the rival doctrines of Apollinaris of Laodicea (flourished 360–380) and Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350–428), representatives of the rival schools of Alexandria and Antioch, respectively. The Council of Ephesus (431)—led by Cyril" class="md-crosslink">St. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria (reigned 412–444) and nephew of Athanasius—condemned an extreme Antiochene Christology taught by Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople. The position of Nestorius was that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, may not properly be called mother of God (Greek theotokos, or “God-bearer”), because she was the mother only of the human Jesus, not of the preexistent Word of God. This position shocked not only the Alexandrians but also the majority of other Christians, who had held that Jesus Christ had both human and divine natures that were equally present in his person (hypostasis). Nestorius’s dyophysite, or “two-nature,” doctrine was vigorously attacked by Cyril, who proposed a carefully worded Christological formula declaring that there was “one nature of the Word which became incarnate.”