The Fifth Century in Church History

What happened in this century?

• Rome was conquered and sacked not once but twice:  in 410 and 455.

• Jerome completes the Vulgate, the standard Bible until the 1500s.

• The beginnings of the split between the Western and Eastern Churches emerges.

• The Middle Ages begins in the year 476.

Contact Mark Nickens, Ph.D. in Church History, at drnickens@triad.rr.com.  Questions, comments, and observations are welcome!

©2009 Mark Nickens

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c. 400        Augustine  wrote The Confessions

410        Rome is defeated and sacked by Alaric I, leader of the Visigoths.  The last time Rome had been sacked was in 387 BC.  Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire since 330, would not fail until 1453 (to the Muslims).

418       Pelagius died sometime soon after this year.  The year of his death is unknown, and could have been decades after this, the this is the last year he was known to be alive. 

The Big Picture:  Pelagianism

Pelagius is significant because of one theological idea:  he believed that humans can make the initial step toward accepting God without any assistance or draw from God.  Augustine became involved in a length disagreement with Pelagius and his followers:  Augustine believed that God has to initially draw humans to him and that humans can only respond, not initiate.  What was the problem?  Pelagius concluded that humans have the responsibility of choosing good and evil and are not guided by the Holy Spirit or any other aspect of God.  Therefore, the purpose of Christ was to give instruction and a good example, not to provide salvation.  Pelagianism was condemned as a heresy by Augustine and others, and was eventually defeated in the Council of Ephesus in 431

c.  420        Augustine wrote The City of God.

420        Jerome died.  He translated the Bible in Latin; it is known as the Vulgate and was the official version for European Christians until the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s.

430        Augustine died.  The Vandals were at that point besieging Rome, although they would take Rome until 455.

The Big Picture:  Augustine's Impact

Through involvement with the Donatists and Pelagius, Augustine developed theological ideas which would greatly impact Christianity.  Among his ideas:  the validity of a rite of the church does not depend on the spiritual purity of the clergy but on the church in which it is performed; the concept of a just war; and the initiative to respond to God must initiate from God, humans are not capable of responding to God from their own initiative--this was an early form of predestination.

431        Council of Ephesus.  This was the third of the twenty-one major Church Councils.  Convened by Emperor Theodosius II in response to the Nestorian Controversy.  Nestorius' ideas were condemned and he was excommunicated.  He believed that Christ consisted of two separate Persons, one Divine and one Human, in one body.  The Church belief was that Christ was one Person, fully God and fully human, in the one body.  In addition, the Council gave approval to refer to Mary as "theotokos," "God-bearer."

451        Council of Chalcedon.  This was the fourth of the twenty-one major Church Councils.  Convened by Emperor Marcian in response to the Eutychian (also called Monophysitism) Controversy.  Eutychius was removed from his position of leadership over a large monastery in Constantinople and exiled.  He believed that Christ only contained a Divine Nature.  This was a direct contradiction of the Council of Ephesus, which stated that Christ was fully God and fully human.  In addition, the Western representatives rejected the idea that the head of the church in Constantinople be given the title "Patriarch" and that it be made second in authority to the church in Rome.

The Big Picture:  Different Identities for the Western and Eastern Churches

While it is difficult to determine the first difference between the Western and Eastern Churches, it is certain that the break which would occur in 1054 began well before that.  In the Council of Chalcedon the differing ideas are apparent.  The Constantinople Church recognizes the supremacy of the Roman Church but wants some recognition of its own unique worth.  Other factors also indicated a future rupture:  many smaller Councils consisted of either all Western or all Eastern participants, the ascetic movement began in the East (Egypt) and was appropriated in the West, Rome was defeated whereas Constantinople remained strong, and many of the controversies in this time period originated in the East, which indicates more divergent ideas of what it means to be Christian than in the West. 

455        Rome is again defeated and sacked, this time by the Vandals.  They were Arian.

c. 460       St. Patrick died.  Although born in Britain, he was sent to Ireland as a bishop and remained there his entire life.

More info:  To learn more about St. Patrick and read an excerpt from his autobiography, click here.

461       Pope Leo I, the Great, died.  He is credited with consolidating the power of the papacy during the time of turmoil following the fall of Rome, at which he was present.  He enlarge the authority of the papacy into Northern Africa, Gaul (France), and Spain.

476        The Western Roman Empire comes to an end when Odoacer, a German general, forced Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, to resign.  Odoacer became the king of Italy; he held Arian beliefs.  The Middle Ages are considered to have begun in this year.

483        Simplicius died and Felix III became Pope.  One of his grandsons would become Gregory the Great.

496        Clovis, the Frankish (French) king, was baptized.  3000 of Clovis' soldiers were also baptized.

Primary Sources