Councils and the Christian Empire

AD 313–60039 eventsShow on the timeline

Toleration, then establishment. The great councils define the doctrines of the Trinity and of Christ, the canon is fixed, monasticism spreads, and the faith reaches Ethiopia, Persia and Ireland.

With Constantine the church moves from the margins to the centre of public life. Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon produce the creeds still confessed today; Chalcedon also leaves lasting divisions with the churches of Egypt, Syria, Armenia and Persia. Jerome, Augustine and the Cappadocians shape theology for centuries.

Events of this era

AD 313, firm date
The Edict of Milan
Constantine and Licinius agree at Milan that Christians and everyone else may worship as they choose. The text that survives is a letter Licinius had posted at Nicomedia in June 313, which also orders confiscated church property returned.
AD 314, firm date
The Donatist Schism and the Council of Arles
Two rival bishops claim Carthage after the persecution. One party appeals to Constantine, who refers the case to bishops at Rome and then to a council at Arles. Both find for Caecilian, but the African church is still divided ninety years later.
about AD 320, estimated date
Pachomius Founds Communal Monasticism
At Tabennisi in Upper Egypt, Pachomius gathers monks into a walled community with a common rule, shared meals and work, and a single superior. By his death there are several houses of men and women, and his rule is later translated for the West.
May AD 325, firm date
The First Council of Nicaea
Constantine gathers some three hundred bishops at Nicaea over the teaching of Arius. They confess the Son to be “of one substance with the Father”, agree a common date for Easter and issue twenty canons. Catholic, Orthodox and Reformation churches still appeal to the council.
c. AD 326–337, estimated date
The Conversion of Georgia
Rufinus, about 402, tells how a captive Christian woman brought the king and queen of the Iberians to the faith and how they asked Constantine for clergy. Georgian tradition names her Nino and the king Mirian and sets the story at Mtskheta.
11 May AD 330, firm date
Constantine Dedicates Constantinople
Constantine rebuilds Byzantium on the Bosphorus as a new imperial city, names it after himself and dedicates it on 11 May 330. He means it to equal Rome and calls it New Rome, and in 381 its bishop is ranked next after the bishop of Rome.
c. AD 330–356, estimated date
King Ezana of Aksum Becomes Christian
Ezana, king of Aksum in the Ethiopian highlands, sets up an inscription that opens in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A letter of the emperor Constantius II names Frumentius, ordained by Athanasius of Alexandria, as bishop of Aksum.
AD 335, firm date
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Is Dedicated
Constantine has a temple cleared from the site in Jerusalem where a rock tomb is uncovered, and builds a great basilica beside it. Bishops from across the East dedicate it in 335. Later writers add that his mother Helena found the cross there.
about AD 341, estimated date
Ulfilas Translates the Bible for the Goths
Ulfilas, bishop of the Christian Goths for forty years, is credited by ancient historians with an alphabet for Gothic and a translation of the Scriptures. He held the Homoian creed, which Nicene writers called Arian. A sixth-century copy of the Gothic Gospels survives at Uppsala.
AD 359 to AD 360, firm date
The Councils of Rimini and Seleucia
The emperor Constantius II summons the western bishops to Rimini and the eastern to Seleucia. Under imperial pressure the delegates of both accept a creed that calls the Son like the Father and forbids the Nicene language of substance.
AD 361 to AD 363, firm date
Julian Tries to Restore the Old Religion
Julian, a nephew of Constantine, renounces the Christianity in which he was raised, reopens the temples and bars Christians from teaching the classics. He dies on campaign in Persia after less than two years as sole ruler.
AD 367, firm date
Athanasius Lists the Twenty-seven Books of the New Testament
In his Easter letter for 367 the bishop of Alexandria sets out which books are Scripture. His New Testament names twenty-seven books, the same that the Council of Trent later listed. He adds a second group of books that are read but are not in the canon.
about AD 370 to AD 381, estimated date
The Cappadocians and the Doctrine of the Trinity
Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his brother Gregory of Nyssa speak of one divine essence in three persons and defend the deity of the Holy Spirit. The creed of 381 uses kindred language. Basil and his sister Macrina foster monastic life.
27 February AD 380, firm date
The Edict of Thessalonica
By an edict issued at Thessalonica, the emperor Theodosius orders all his peoples to hold the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria in the one deity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christians who believe otherwise are declared heretics.
May AD 381, firm date
The First Council of Constantinople
About 150 eastern bishops, summoned by Theodosius, confirm the faith of Nicaea, condemn those who deny the full deity of the Son or of the Spirit, and rank the bishop of Constantinople next after Rome. The creed now recited in most churches bears this council’s name.
c. 382–405, estimated date
Jerome Translates the Latin Vulgate
At the request of Pope Damasus, Jerome revises the Latin Gospels against the Greek. At Bethlehem he then translates the Old Testament from Hebrew, book by book, over more than a decade. His version became the common Bible of the Latin West.
AD 386, firm date
The Conversion of Augustine
In a garden at Milan the African teacher of rhetoric Augustine, after years of hesitation, reads a sentence of Paul and resolves to seek baptism. He tells the story himself in the Confessions. Ambrose baptises him the following Easter.
AD 390, estimated date
Ambrose Calls an Emperor to Penance
After Theodosius orders a massacre at Thessalonica, Ambrose of Milan writes that he cannot celebrate the eucharist in the emperor’s presence until he repents. Theodosius does public penance. Later writers add a confrontation at the church door that is not in the letter.
AD 393 to AD 397, firm date
African Councils List the Books of Scripture
The bishops of Roman Africa, meeting at Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397, rule that only canonical Scripture may be read in church and list its books: a New Testament of twenty-seven books and an Old Testament that includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach and Maccabees.
AD 398 to AD 407, firm date
John Chrysostom, Preacher and Exile
John, a presbyter of Antioch known for his preaching, is made bishop of Constantinople in 398. His reforms and his plain speaking make enemies among the clergy and at court. A synod deposes him, the emperor banishes him twice, and he dies in exile in 407.
1 February AD 410, firm date
The Church of the East Organises at Seleucia-Ctesiphon
With the leave of the Persian king Yazdegerd I, forty bishops of his empire meet in the capital under Isaac, bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. They accept the creed and canons of Nicaea and set their church in order under one head, the catholicos.
August AD 410, firm date
The Sack of Rome and Augustine’s City of God
Alaric’s Goths take and plunder Rome in August 410. Pagans blame the disaster on the abandonment of the old gods. Augustine answers with the City of God, twenty-two books on the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, written over a number of years.
AD 411 to AD 418, estimated date
Augustine and Pelagius Dispute over Grace
The monk Pelagius teaches that God made human nature able to choose the good and commands nothing impossible. Augustine answers that fallen nature can do no good without the grace of Christ. African councils and the bishops of Rome condemn Pelagius’s teaching in 418.
June AD 431, firm date
The Council of Ephesus
A council led by Cyril of Alexandria deposes Nestorius of Constantinople and upholds the title Theotokos, God-bearer, for Mary. The bishops of Antioch dissent until 433. The council long divides the Church of the East, beyond the Roman frontier, from the churches that receive it.
c. AD 432–461 or 493 (traditional), traditional date
Patrick’s Mission to Ireland
Patrick, a Briton once enslaved in Ireland, returns there as a bishop and stays for life, baptising and ordaining clergy. Almost all that is known of him comes from his own two writings; his dates rest on annals compiled much later.
August AD 449, firm date
The Second Council of Ephesus
A council under Dioscorus of Alexandria restores the monk Eutyches and deposes Flavian of Constantinople and other bishops as followers of Nestorius. The emperor confirms it; Leo of Rome rejects it as a meeting of robbers. Chalcedon overturns it two years later.
October AD 451, firm date
The Council of Chalcedon
A council called by the emperor Marcian confesses Christ as one person in two natures, divine and human, and ranks Constantinople next after Rome. The Greek and Latin churches receive it; the Coptic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian and Ethiopian churches do not.
AD 476, firm date
The End of the Western Roman Empire
The general Odoacer deposes the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus at Ravenna and rules Italy as king. No Western emperor follows, and the bishops of Rome begin to deal with distant emperors and with kings of another confession.
AD 482 to AD 519, firm date
The Henotikon and the Acacian Schism
The emperor Zeno tries to reunite the supporters and opponents of Chalcedon with a statement of faith that neither adopts nor expressly condemns the council. Rome answers by declaring Acacius of Constantinople deposed, and the two sees stay out of communion for thirty-five years.
c. AD 496–508, estimated date
The Baptism of Clovis
Clovis, king of the Franks, is baptised a Catholic Christian by Bishop Remigius of Reims, with many of his warriors. Unlike the Burgundian and Visigothic kings, who were Arians, he shares the faith of his Gallo-Roman subjects and their bishops.
AD 523 (or 518), estimated date
The Martyrs of Najran
Yusuf, the Jewish king of Himyar in south Arabia, makes war on the Christian town of Najran. Syriac writers report that he put its leading men, with their chief Harith (Arethas), and many women to death. Kaleb, king of Aksum, then crosses the sea and overthrows him.
c. AD 530–550, estimated date
Benedict Writes His Rule
Benedict of Nursia, abbot of Monte Cassino, writes a rule for monks living in community under an abbot, with a day divided between common prayer, reading and manual work. It later becomes the standard rule of Western monasteries.
27 December AD 537, firm date
Justinian Builds Hagia Sophia
After rioters burn the cathedral of Constantinople in 532, the emperor Justinian rebuilds it as a vast domed church, dedicated on 27 December 537. In the same years he sets out in law his view of priesthood and empire as two gifts of God.
about AD 542 to AD 578, estimated date
Jacob Baradaeus and the Syriac Orthodox Church
When the opponents of Chalcedon are short of bishops, the empress Theodora has the monk Jacob consecrated. John of Ephesus, his admirer, tells how he travelled the East for over thirty years, hunted by the emperor’s agents, ordaining clergy and bishops for a separate church.
about AD 543 to AD 580, estimated date
The Conversion of the Nubian Kingdoms
John of Ephesus tells how the empress Theodora sent the priest Julian to the Nobadae on the Nile south of Egypt ahead of her husband’s envoys, so that they were baptised into the church that rejected Chalcedon, and how the bishop Longinus later baptised the king of Alodia.
AD 553, firm date
The Second Council of Constantinople
A council called by the emperor Justinian condemns the “Three Chapters”, writings of three theologians linked with Nestorius, and restates the faith of Chalcedon in fourteen anathemas. Pope Vigilius first refuses and then accepts; parts of the West resist for decades.
AD 563, estimated date
Columba Founds Iona
The Irish priest and abbot Columba crosses to Britain and founds a monastery on the island of Iona. From it he preaches among the Picts, and it becomes the mother house of a family of monasteries in Ireland and Britain.
8 May AD 589, firm date
The Visigoths Turn Catholic at Toledo
At Toledo in 589 King Reccared and the Gothic bishops and nobles renounce Arianism for the Nicene faith. The king’s profession says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and the council orders the creed recited at every mass.
AD 590 to AD 604, firm date
Gregory the Great and the Mission to the English
Gregory I, a monk made pope against his will, governs the Roman church from 590 to 604, writes the Pastoral Rule, refuses the title of universal bishop and sends the monk Augustine to convert the English of Kent.