Holy Antiquity

Blast from the Past

After Peter proclaims that Jesus is not solely the Son of Man and the Messiah but also “the Son of the living God,” Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

This proclamation commenced the reign of the heavenly kingdom on Earth and the world’s oldest continuously functioning international institution, as there has been a direct line and succession of Popes from Peter and bishops from the Twelve Apostles.

Strange that the Church Christ instituted himself has seen this type of longevity…

To study its history in full would take decades, but today I’ll take you through some of the most significant events.

(Roughly) 30 AD: Peter the First Pope

Peter begins his reign as the Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope, and becomes the first of 266 Vicars of Christ on Earth.

He remained the head of the Church until his upside-down crucifixion in 64 during the Neronian Persecution, which began shortly after the Great Fire of Rome.

It is said that he refused to be crucified “the normal way,” as he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord, Jesus Christ.

110 AD: Ignatius of Antioch uses the word “Catholic”

Ignatius, the third bishop of Antioch and disciple of the apostle John, describes the Church as “Catholic” in a letter to the church at Smyrna.

Ignatius writes “wherever the bishop shall appear, let the multitude of the people also be; even as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”

The term Catholic, stemming from the Greek word katholikos, simply means “according to the whole” or “universal”.

Additionally, he warns against those who deny the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist saying, “Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God…they abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again…they who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.”

313 & 325 AD: Edict of Milan & Council of Nicaea

In 312, the Roman emperor Constantine had received a vision that he would emerge victorious in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge if he fought under the symbol of Christ. Acquiescing to his conscience, he ordered the soldiers to bear the Chi-Rho sign on their shields, signifying the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ.

After this phenomenon, he began his journey to becoming a Christian.

The following year, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, officially declaring the Roman empire neutral on the topic of religiosity in the empire, thus making Christianity legal and ending centuries-long persecution of its followers.

The following decade in 325, Constantine used his power as emperor to gather bishops from around the world to settle the growing dispute surrounding Arianism, a quickly growing heresy that argued against the consubstantial nature of the Father and Son. This was the first official ecumenical council held in the Catholic Church.

Unsurprisingly, nearly every one of the 300+ bishops that attended agreed that the Arians were heretics.

The council also produced the Nicene Creed, which is still professed at Mass until this day.

For more details on the Council of Nicaea, check out my previous memo on the topic.

382 AD: Council of Rome & the Canon

While not an official ecumenical council like the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Rome still maintains extreme significance, as the council’s decree established the official list of sacred scripture, known as Canon, for the Christian Bible.

Held under Pope Damasus I, the council listed the accepted books of the Old and New Testament, as no others outside of the 73 selected were to be considered divinely inspired scripture.

The decree was identical to the list of books that was reaffirmed at the post-Protestant Revolution Council of Trent in the 16th century.

431 AD: Council of Ephesus

This council was the third official ecumenical council and dealt with another growing heresy called Nestorianism which claimed that Jesus, rather than existing as one fully divine and fully human person, existed as two distinct persons, with one being the divine Logos (Word of God) and the human Jesus of Nazareth.

An implication of this claim is that Mary could not be considered Theotokos (Mother of God) but rather Christotokos (Mother of Christ).

The council convened and determined that these ideas were heretical and reasserted that Jesus is True God and True Man, and that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God.

1054: East / West Schism

Centuries of cultural, ecclesiastical, and theological disputes between the churches in the West and East eventually led to break of communion between the Western Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.

Differences like the use of leavened versus unleavened bread for Eucharist, the role and authority of the Pope, the ability for priests to marry or remain celibate, and the argument over the Filioque (Orthodox = Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father solely; Catholics = procession is from the Father and the Son) culminated in the Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople ordering the closure of all Latin churches in the city.

As a response, Pope Leo IX sent his legate, or representative, to Constantinople to issue Celarius a decree of excommunication and the two churches have remained separated ever since.

1095/1099: First Crusade & Recapture of Jerusalem

In 1095 at the Council of Clermont (not an ecumenical council), Pope Urban II called for the first Crusade to recapture the Holy Land and to accept the East’s plea for aid.

Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos had requested military assistance from the West after the Seljuk Turks conquered large segments of Asia Minor and threatened to siege Constantinople next.

Despite the growing East-West tensions since the Schism just a few decades previously, the Pope agreed to help the East.

Additionally, Jerusalem obviously holds extreme significance for Christians and given it had been captured by Muslim forces a few centuries prior, it was seen as an opportunity to reclaim the land they thought was rightfully theirs.

In 1099, they were able to do so, as the Catholic Crusader state of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established after their ensuing victory and lasted for roughly 90 years.

Tragically, before he could receive the news that Jerusalem had been recaptured, Pope Urban II passed away.

1517-1545: Protestant Revolution, Henry VIII, and the Council of Trent

1517 was the infamous year that Martin Luther, a Catholic priest from Germany, issued his 95 Theses, explaining the abuses and corruption in the Church and how he wanted to see it fixed.

Contrary to popular belief, the Church did not condemn the work as a whole but rather identified 41 out of the 95 points as heretical and gave him 60 days to recant the publication in 1520.

After refusing to do so, Luther was officially excommunicated in 1521 at the Diet of Worms.

Meanwhile in England, Henry VIII, after having his request for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon denied by the Pope, married Anne Boleyn and was later excommunicated from the Church.

Subsequently, he passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, making himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and ending the near 1,000 year reign of Catholicism in England.

With the intention of responding to the Protestant Revolution and clean up the corruption plaguing the Church, the ecumenical Council of Trent was held in 1545.

Specific bases covered in the council included the rejection of sola fide (justification through faith alone), reaffirmation of the Church being the ultimate interpreter of Scripture as well as the co-equal authority of sacred scripture and tradition, prohibiting the sale of indulgences, and upholding doctrines of purgatory, invocation of saints, and veneration of relics.

1962: Vatican II

Vatican II was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council held, as well as arguably the most controversial. The council was held with the main intention of moderately modernizing the Church while simultaneously staying faithful to its traditions.

Reforms included Mass being conducted in vernacular languages (English, Spanish, etc) instead of Latin, the priest facing the people during Mass, active participation of the laity, and allowing communion on the hand rather than strictly on the tongue.

These changes upset a minority of very traditional Catholics and led to certain groups like the Society of St. Pius X, the Society of St. Pius V, and sedevacantists to split from the Church.

1994: Prohibition of Female Ordination is Upheld

Pope John Paul II issued an ecclesiastical letter on May 22, 1994 reaffirming the Catholic Church’s position against women becoming priests.

He explains that the priesthood is a special role specially set out by Jesus when he choose twelve men to be his apostles, although there were women like Mary Magdalene and Martha who were close followers.

The Church sees this as a deliberate decision and not simply a cultural concession given that Jesus was willing to break social norms regarding women like his discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well.

Additionally, the priests represents Christ himself, who was obviously male, in the sacraments, particularly during consecration at Mass, where he acts as Christ during the Last Supper.

This list is nowhere near exhaustive—it is merely the tip of the iceberg.

I hope to do deeper dives on both individual events covered in this memo as well as those that were left out.

But that’s for another time.

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Thanks for reading and until next time.

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