Daily Medieval

In the earliest days of Christianity, there were three languages that were an important part of its development and spread: Greek, Latin, an...

When the report of the Second Council of Nicaea  (in 787 CE) was written up approving the use of icons for religious purposes, it mentioned ...

The first part of the Second Council of Nicaea—in which I discuss the agenda of the first three sessions—is here . The fourth session was to...

The Second Council of Nicaea (24 September - 13 October 787) was the last of seven ecumenical councils that took place with participation fr...

To continue yesterday's post and talk about "re-orienting" wayward bishops with "wrong" ideas, we should first look ...

The Western Roman Empire and Eastern Byzantine Empire had many differences over the centuries. Some of the biggest differences were religiou...

Technically, there were two of these synods, both held in Constantinople. One of them was called by Emperor Basil I, with the cooperation of...

According to tradition, the apostles Bartholomew and Jude Thaddeus (the double name was to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot and from stor...

The  Opus Caroli regis contra synodum  ("The work of King Charles against the Synod"), also known as  Libri Carolini  ("Charl...

Although Constantine had called the 1st Council of Nicaea to make sure there was an established orthodoxy for Christianity throughout the em...

Easter is the "floatiest" of floating holidays in the Western calendar. The 7th century saw a very serious debate over how the da...

We have talked about the Council of Nicaea before, but always the First Council in 325. There were several ecumenical councils. The seventh...

This blog has touched on the debate over the date of Easter in the past, but the truth is that the early Church went through different phase...

15th century woodcut of Nicholas In the introduction to Arian Christianity I mentioned how discussion at the Council of Nicaea in 325 b...

What makes a pope into an antipope? In 355, the Roman Emperor Constantius II (317-361) wasn't happy with the pope. Constantius was an ...

Iota, the smallest thing in the Greek alphabet, with the reputation for being ... the smallest thing. Even people who don't know a b...

In the theological free-for-all of the first few centuries after Jesus of Nazareth, different theories as to the nature of God and the divin...