The Visigoths,
Ostrogoths, Vandals and more remote Germanic tribes, such as the
Burgundians and the Lombards had embraced the Arian faith and
are invading the Roman empire (376). After the death of Theodosius
in 395, the empire is split between his two sons and they are
unable to resist the attacks of these tribes. Alaric and the Visigoths
plundered to the walls of Constantinople and moved all the way
to Greece. In 410, Alaric captures Rome.
Jerome
One of the ablest scholars of the ancient Western Church. Born
in 340 in Dalmatia, he studied in Rome. He was overtaken with
illness on a visit to Antioch where he believed Christ Himself
appeared to him and reproached him for his devotion to the classics.
He now turned solely to the study of the Scriptures, studying
Hebrew, and living as a hermit from 373 to 379, not far from Antioch.
He was ordained a presbyter in Antioch later in 379 and studied
under Gregory Nazianzus in Constantinople. In 382 he was in Rome
with Pope Damasus (d.384), where he preached continually on the
merits of the monastic life.
He soon had
a large following, but met with much trouble from the clergy because
monasticism was not as yet popular in the West. He established
monasteries and nunneries in Egypt and Bethlehem. He died in Bethlehem
in 420. He was a translator of the Scriptures. He completed a
New Testament translation under the supervision of Pope Damasus
in 388. The Old Testament he translated while in Bethlehem with
the aid of Jewish friends. The Vulgate was the result of his work
and is still in use in the Roman Church as the official translation.
He wrote in support of Augustine against the teachings of Pelagius.
Review:
The Trinity and the Deity of Christ. The necessity of the
establishment of the doctrines of grace and salvation (Notice
the building of theology in the Church systematically).
Ambrose
(d. 397)
Elected Bishop of Milan in 374. Strongly pro-Nicene and would
make no compromise with the Arians. His moral courage caused him
to direct Emperor Theodosius to manifest public repentance after
he in quick temper ravaged Thessalonica because he was angry at
the governor in 390; Theodosius obeyed the admonition. Ambrose
was a theological writer that has been called by the Roman Church
as "Doctor," or an authoritative teacher. He contributed greatly
to the development of Christian hymnology in the West. "I will
not glory because I am righteous, but I will glory because I am
redeemed. I will not glory because I am free from sin, but because
my sins are forgiven."
Augustine
of Hippo
Born
in Thagaste, in Numidia (Algeria) on November 13, 354. Son of
a heathen father and a godly mother named Monica. He pursued the
study of rhetoric in Carthage, North Africa at 17. He took a concubine
for 14 years and had a son named Adeodatus in 372. He tried studying
the Scriptures at 19 but found them "unworthy compared with the
writings of Cicero." He turned for spiritual and intellectual
comfort to the dualistic system known as Manichaeism for 9 years.
He became a teacher of rhetoric in Milan in 384, the Western capital
of the empire at this time. Augustine became drawn and fascinated
by the teachings of Ambrose. He longed to sit under his preaching
and described Ambrose as the "perfection of pulpit eloquence."
He became filled with shame over his moral life and the fact that
"ignorant men like monks could put away temptations which he,
a man of learning, felt powerless to resist." Romans 13:13 was
the verse of Scipture the Spirit of God used in his conversion
in 386. In 387, he was baptized by Ambrose. He was ordained to
the priesthood in 391 and became Bishop of Hippo in North Africa
in 395. He died on August 28, 430, during the seige of Hippo by
the Vandals.
Augustine's
Doctrines of Grace- "Command what thy will; and give what thy
command."
Salvation
comes by God's grace, which is wholly undeserved, and wholly free.
Adam's sin and subsequent fall effected all of Adam's posterity
(Original Sin). Grace comes to those to whom God chooses to send
it. He predestinates whom He will "to punishment and salvation."
Grace is irresistible and man cannot reject God's call. Grace
after conversion frees the enslaved will to choose that which
is pleasing to God, "not only in order that they may know, by
the manifestation of that grace, what should be don, but moreover
in order that, by its enabling, they may do with love what they
know." Through us, God does good works, which He rewards as if
they were men's own and to which He ascribes merit. The Sacraments
are signs of spiritual realities, rather than the realities themselves.
They are essential; but the truths to which they witness are,
whenever received, the work of divine grace.
Who is
Pelagius?
Pelagius
was a British monk or excellent repute and much learning. He settled
in Rome about 400. He was shocked at the low tone of morals in
Rome and he labored earnestly to secure strict ethical standards.
Won a disciple named Celestius, a Roman lawyer. In 410, he went
to North Africa to visit Augustine and did not find him. He journeyed
to the East and Celestius stayed in Carthage and sought ordination
as a presbyter by Bishop Aurelius. A letter was sent from Paulinus,
a deacon of Milan to Aurelius charging Celestius with six errors
that Pelagius had taught him (see Pelagius' Doctrines below).
An advisory synod in Carthage rejected his ordination and he traveled
to Ephesus where he obtained it. Three synods were held by 420
condemning the teachings of Pelagius that were spreading. Pelagius
disappears and dies c. 420.
Pelagius'
Doctrines of Sin and Grace
Pelagius
believed in the power of the human will. "If I ought, I can."
"As often as I have to speak of the principles of virtue and a
holy life, I am accustomed first of all to call attention to the
capacity and character of human nature and to show what it is
able to accomplish; then from this to arouse the feelings of the
hearer, the he may strive after different kinds of virtue." He
denied Original Sin inherited from Adam, and affirmed that all
men now have the power not to sin. Adam's sin merely set an ill
example and many have been quick to follow.
Read Romans
5:12-21
Introduction
to the Council of Ephesus (431)
An
edict of the Emperor Honorius in 419, required the bishops of
the West to officially condemn the teachings of Pelagius and Celestius.
Julian and 18 others in Italy refused. Several were driven into
exile and sought refuge in the East. In Julian, Augustine found
an able opponent, and Pelagianism its chief systematizer.
About 429
Julian and Celestius found some support from Nestorius in Constantinople,
though Nestorius was not a Pelagian. This favor worked to Nestorius's
disadvantage in his own troubles, and together with the wish of
the Pope led to the condemnation of Pelagiansm by the Third General
Council of Ephesus in 431. Pelagianism, thus officially rejected
in the West and the East, lived on in less extreme forms, and
has always represented a tendency in the thinking of the church.
