Controversies
Twenty disputes, from Easter dates to the councils that split the eastern churches. The summary names who came out ahead and what happened to the side that lost.
Winners and losers
| Controversy | Outcome | What happened to the losers |
|---|---|---|
| Quartodeciman / Easter-date controversy | Nicaea (325) set a common Sunday Easter, independent of the Jewish calendar. Computation differences (Alexandrian vs Roman tables) lasted into the early Middle Ages. | Quartodecimans became a separate sect, attested into the 5th century and listed in Theodosian laws against heretics. They then disappear. |
| Marcion and the shaping of the canon | Marcion was expelled by the Roman church (traditionally 144). The debate pushed the mainstream toward a defined New Testament. Whether Marcion caused the canon or just sped it up is debated (Harnack vs later scholars). | Marcionite churches spread widely, from Gaul to Persia, and the Lebaba inscription shows a congregation still active in 318/319. They were suppressed under Theodosian law and absorbed or overtaken by Manichaeism in the East. Theodoret of Cyrrhus claims to have converted eight Marcionite villages in the 5th century. |
| The "Gnostic" controversies | No single council decided it. The rule of faith, episcopal succession and the emerging canon did. By the 4th century, Valentinian and Sethian groups were marginal. | Communities faded through the 4th–5th centuries, and the Callinicum chapel was burned in 388. Their writings largely vanished until the Nag Hammadi (1945), Berlin and Tchacos codices. |
| The New Prophecy (Montanism) | The movement was condemned by Asian synods. Rome wavered, then rejected it. Later councils required Montanists to be rebaptized. | Montanism survived as a separate church in Phrygia for centuries. Justinian's laws led to its suppression, and John of Ephesus reports the burning of the prophets' relics at Pepuza in about 550. Tertullianists in Carthage rejoined the Catholic church under Augustine. |
| Novatianist schism | Synods of Rome and Carthage (251) condemned Novatian. Nicaea (canon 8) allowed Novatianist clergy to be received with a laying on of hands. | Novatianists persisted as an orthodox-creedal separate church. They were respected in Constantinople (Socrates reports their bishops and their suffering under Arian emperors) and gradually declined, last attested in the 7th century. |
| Donatist schism | Rome (313), Arles (314) and Constantine (316) ruled for Caecilian. After the Carthage conference (411), Honorius outlawed the Donatist church (412). | The Donatists faced fines, confiscations and exile. Many were forced into union, some died resisting, and the rest survived quietly under the Vandals. Gregory the Great (c. 590s) still complains of Donatists. They disappear after the Arab conquest. |
| Melitian schism (Egypt) | Nicaea allowed Melitius to keep his title but not to ordain, and his clergy were to rank below Catholic clergy. The truce broke down, and Melitian accusers helped depose Athanasius at Tyre (335). | Melitian monasteries survived for centuries. Papyri (e.g. the Paieous archive, 330s) and Theodoret attest them, and the last references are in the 8th century. |
| Arian controversy (Nicaea 325 – Constantinople 381) | Theodosius I's edict Cunctos populos (380) and Constantinople (381) made Nicene faith the law of the empire. | Arians lost their churches in the empire. Homoian Christianity lived on among Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Sueves and Lombards (Ravenna, Carthage, Toledo). The Vandals persecuted Nicenes in Africa. These kingdoms converted or fell: the Vandals in 534, the Visigoths in 589 at Toledo III, and the Lombards by about 680. |
| Apollinarian and Pneumatomachian disputes | Both were condemned at Rome (377) and Constantinople (381). | Apollinarian communities survived briefly. Some of Apollinaris' writings circulated under orthodox names (Athanasius, Julius) and later influenced Cyril's formulas, a point important to the Miaphysite debate. |
| Priscillianist affair | Priscillian was executed in 385. His accusers were later disgraced, and Ithacius was deposed. The movement was condemned at Toledo (400) and Braga (561). | Galicia venerated Priscillian as a martyr, and the movement persisted there until the late 6th century. The 'Würzburg tractates', discovered in 1885, preserve writings by him or his circle. |
| Pelagian controversy | Pelagius was acquitted at Diospolis (415) but condemned by Carthage, Pope Zosimus and Honorius (418). Ephesus (431) condemned Caelestius. The Council of Orange (529) settled the later Semi-Pelagian dispute in a moderate Augustinian sense. | Pelagius vanishes from the record after about 418. Julian was exiled and died in Sicily (c. 455). Pelagius' commentary on Paul survived under Jerome's name. |
| Nestorian controversy (Ephesus 431) | Nestorius was deposed (431) and exiled to the Egyptian desert, where he died around 450/451. The Formula of Reunion (433) reconciled Cyril and John. | The Antiochene theological tradition moved east. The School of Edessa was closed in 489, and its teachers went to Nisibis (Persia batch). The Church of the East adopted Theodore's Christology at the 484/486 synods and was called 'Nestorian', a label it rejects. It spread to China, Central Asia and India. Nestorius' Bazaar of Heracleides survived in Syriac. |
| Chalcedon (451) and the Miaphysite split | Chalcedon became imperial orthodoxy. Persecution and parallel hierarchies followed. Jacob Baradaeus ordained an independent Syriac hierarchy (c. 540s), and the Armenian church broke formally at Dvin (554). | The 'losers' became the Oriental Orthodox churches: Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian/Eritrean (Aksum is in the Africa batch) and Malankara. They endured centuries of Byzantine pressure and then Islamic rule. Joint Christological statements in 1984–1990 largely recognized the dispute as terminological. |
| Three Chapters controversy (553) | Constantinople II (553) condemned the Three Chapters, and Vigilius eventually conceded. | The 'Schism of the Three Chapters' cut off Aquileia and its suffragans from Rome until 698/699 (Synod of Pavia). African dissenters were exiled. The Miaphysites were not won over. The Church of the East, which venerates Theodore, was further estranged. |
| Origenist controversies | Theophilus expelled the Nitrian Origenists (c. 400). Justinian's edict (543) and the anathemas around 553 condemned Origen and Evagrius. | Many Greek works of Origen and Evagrius were lost. Evagrius survived under other names in Greek and in full in Syriac and Armenian, influencing East Syriac and Byzantine monasticism. |
| Monoenergist / Monothelite controversy (Constantinople 680–681) | Constantinople III (680–681) defined two wills and energies and condemned the Monothelites, including Honorius. | Maximus was mutilated and exiled, and Martin died in exile, though both were later venerated. A brief revival under Philippikos (711–713) was reversed. The Maronite church was accused by its opponents (e.g. William of Tyre) of Monothelite origins, which Maronites deny. |
| Byzantine Iconoclasm (787 / 843) | Nicaea II (787) restored icons. After the second iconoclasm, the 843 'Triumph of Orthodoxy' ended the controversy for good. | Iconoclast writings were destroyed, and their arguments survive mostly in iconophile refutations. Iconoclast clergy were deposed. Leaders' remains were desecrated, and Constantine V's was reportedly exhumed under Michael III. |
| Filioque and the East–West schism (1054) | No decisive council settled it. Reunion councils (Lyon 1274, Florence 1439) failed. The sack of Constantinople (1204) made the split popular and bitter. In 1965 Paul VI and Athenagoras lifted the 1054 excommunications. | There was no 'losing side'. Two communions persisted, each regarding the other as schismatic. |
| Suppression of Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathars | The Byzantines destroyed the Paulician state (Tephrike, 872) and deported Paulicians to Thrace. Basil the Bogomil was burned (c. 1100). The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) and the Inquisition crushed Catharism, including Béziers in 1209, Montségur in 1244 and Sirmione in 1276. | Paulicians in Thrace gradually converted. Some became the Catholic 'Pavlikeni' of Bulgaria. Bogomilism faded after the Ottoman conquest (its Bosnian connection is disputed). The last Cathar parfait, Guillaume Bélibaste, was burned in 1321. Most surviving 'evidence' is inquisitorial. |
| Suppression of Manichaeism (Rome, Persia, China) | The religion was eradicated in the Roman West by the 6th century and in the Islamic world after Abbasid persecution (zindiqs, 8th–10th c.). It survived in Central Asia and southern China. | Small communities lasted in Fujian (the Cao'an shrine) into the Ming period. 'Manichaean' remained a stock label for later dualist heretics. The Medinet Madi, Kellis and Turfan finds and the Cologne Mani Codex now let Manichaeans speak in their own words. |
Quartodeciman / Easter-date controversy
c. 155–325 (echoes later: Celtic Easter, Whitby 664)
This was a dispute over whether Christians should keep Pascha on 14 Nisan (the Jewish Passover date, whatever weekday it fell on), following the custom of Asia, or always on the following Sunday, as Rome and most churches did. Polycarp and Anicetus agreed to differ in about 155, but Victor of Rome tried to excommunicate the Asians in about 190.
Marcion and the shaping of the canon
c. 144–5th c.
Marcion published the first known fixed collection of Christian scripture: one gospel (a shorter Luke) and ten letters of Paul, with the Jewish scriptures rejected. He taught that the God of Israel was a lesser, just creator, distinct from the good Father revealed by Jesus. Opponents answered by defending the Old Testament and a four-gospel, wider canon.
The "Gnostic" controversies
c. 120–4th c.
Beginning with Irenaeus, mainstream writers fought a range of teachers (Basilides, Valentinus, Sethian circles, Carpocrates) who taught salvation through knowledge (gnosis) of a hidden divine origin. These teachers often held that a lower demiurge made the world. Modern scholars (M. Williams, K. King) question whether 'Gnosticism' was ever one movement or a category invented by heresiologists.
The New Prophecy (Montanism)
c. 157/172–6th c.
In Phrygia, Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla spoke in ecstatic prophecy as the voice of the Paraclete. They demanded strict fasting and celibacy and expected the New Jerusalem to descend at Pepuza. Asian bishops rejected the prophecies. Tertullian of Carthage later joined the movement.
Novatianist schism
251–7th c.
After the Decian persecution, Novatian of Rome opposed readmitting those who had lapsed and was consecrated rival bishop to Cornelius. His church held that the church could not absolve apostasy after baptism. It called itself 'the Pure' (Katharoi).
Donatist schism
311–7th c.
In North Africa, rigorists rejected Caecilian as bishop of Carthage because a consecrator had supposedly surrendered scriptures (traditio) under Diocletian. They elected Majorinus, then Donatus. They held that sacraments given by unworthy clergy were invalid and rebaptized converts.
Melitian schism (Egypt)
c. 305–8th c.
Melitius of Lycopolis ordained clergy in other sees while Bishop Peter of Alexandria hid during persecution. He then formed a 'Church of the Martyrs' that was stricter on the lapsed. The Melitians later allied with Arius' supporters against Athanasius.
Arian controversy (Nicaea 325 – Constantinople 381)
c. 318–381 (Gothic Homoianism to c. 700)
Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, taught that the Son had a beginning and was created by the Father ('there was when he was not'). Nicaea answered that the Son is homoousios ('of the same substance') with the Father. Sixty years of shifting creeds followed. Homoian (Son 'like' the Father), Homoiousian ('like in substance') and Anomoean (Son 'unlike') parties contended under emperors who took sides.
Apollinarian and Pneumatomachian disputes
c. 360–381
Two spin-off disputes from the Arian crisis. Apollinaris of Laodicea taught that the divine Logos took the place of a human mind in Christ. The Pneumatomachians ('Spirit-fighters', linked with Macedonius and Eustathius of Sebaste) accepted the Son's divinity but denied the Spirit's full equality.
Priscillianist affair
c. 375–6th c.
Priscillian, a lay ascetic who became bishop of Ávila, led a movement of study, fasting and the reading of apocrypha in Spain and Aquitaine. Bishops accused him of Manichaeism and magic. In 385 the usurper Magnus Maximus had him executed at Trier, the first Christian executed for heresy by Christian authority, which Martin of Tours and Ambrose protested.
Pelagian controversy
c. 411–431 (Semi-Pelagian debate to 529)
Pelagius, a British ascetic teaching in Rome, stressed that God's commands imply human ability to obey and denied that Adam's sin is inherited as guilt. Augustine argued that grace precedes every good will and that infants inherit original sin. Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum pressed the Pelagian side.
Nestorian controversy (Ephesus 431)
428–433 (East Syriac separation through 486 and after)
Nestorius, the Antiochene-trained patriarch of Constantinople, objected to calling Mary Theotokos ('God-bearer') and preferred Christotokos. He stressed the distinctness of Christ's two natures. Cyril of Alexandria accused him of dividing Christ into two persons. The fight mixed theology with the rivalry between the sees of Alexandria and Constantinople.
Chalcedon (451) and the Miaphysite split
448–6th c. (lasting to today)
Eutyches, a Constantinopolitan archimandrite, taught one nature after the union. Leo's Tome and the Chalcedonian definition affirmed Christ 'in two natures'. Cyril's heirs in Egypt and Syria held that 'one incarnate nature of God the Word' (miaphysis) was the true orthodoxy and rejected Chalcedon as Nestorian. Emperors' compromise attempts (the Henotikon of 482, Justinian) failed.
Three Chapters controversy (553)
543–7th c.
To reconcile the Miaphysites, Justinian condemned three 'chapters' associated with the Antiochene school: Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret's writings against Cyril, and Ibas' letter to Mari. Since Chalcedon had received Theodoret and Ibas, western bishops saw this as an attack on Chalcedon.
Origenist controversies
c. 393–553
These were attacks on speculative teachings associated with Origen and his monastic followers: the pre-existence of souls, the final restoration of all (apokatastasis) and the nature of resurrection bodies. They erupted around 400 (Epiphanius, Jerome and Theophilus against Rufinus, John of Jerusalem and the Tall Brothers) and again in the 6th century in the Palestinian lavras.
Monoenergist / Monothelite controversy (Constantinople 680–681)
c. 616–681 (Maronite question after)
Seeking to reunite Chalcedonians and Miaphysites amid the Persian and Arab wars, Patriarch Sergius and Emperor Heraclius proposed one 'energy' and then one will in Christ (the Ekthesis, 638). Sophronius of Jerusalem and Maximus the Confessor insisted that two natures imply two wills.
Byzantine Iconoclasm (787 / 843)
726/730–787; 815–843
Emperors Leo III and Constantine V moved against religious images, seeing their veneration as idolatry. The motives are debated: military disasters, Islamic and Jewish critiques, and imperial authority. Monks and the patriarchs of the eastern sees under Muslim rule (John of Damascus) defended icons as a consequence of the incarnation.
Filioque and the East–West schism (1054)
589–1054 (–1204, 1965)
The Latin addition 'and the Son' (Filioque) to the creed's clause on the Spirit's procession spread from Spain (Toledo 589) through the Frankish church. Rome adopted it in its liturgy around 1014. Photius (867) attacked it as heresy. Disputes over papal primacy, azymes and the Bulgarian mission deepened the split, and the legates and Patriarch Cerularius exchanged excommunications in 1054.
Suppression of Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathars
c. 650s–1320s
Byzantine and later Latin authorities treated a chain of dualist-leaning movements as a single 'Manichaean' heresy: Paulicians in Armenia and Anatolia, Bogomils in Bulgaria and Constantinople, and Cathars in Languedoc and Italy. Historians debate how far they were actually connected. Bogomil missionaries at Saint-Félix (1167) are the most concrete link.
Suppression of Manichaeism (Rome, Persia, China)
276–14th c.
Mani's universal religion was persecuted from both sides. Bahram I executed Mani (c. 276). Diocletian's rescript (302) ordered Manichaean leaders burned. Christian emperors made it a capital crime. Later it flourished as the state religion of the Uyghur khaganate (762–840) before Tang China's 843–845 suppression.