Working on the Minutes of Late Antique Church Councils: A Methodological Framework

Tommaso Mari

doi:10.18573/jlarc.112

The Emperor at the Council. Imperial Interventions in Late Antique Church Councils in Literary Sources and Documentary Records

Millennium ◽

10.1515/mill-2021-0006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 175-201

Author(s):

Luisa Andriollo

Keyword(s):

Late Antique ◽

Religious Policy ◽

Literary Sources ◽

Sixth Session ◽

Church Councils

Abstract This paper examines the modes of imperial interactions with Church councils, focusing on the emperor’s participation in episcopal meetings and its representation in late antique sources, both literary and documentary. The author argues that the availability and strategic dissemination of conciliar records could affect, for better or worse, the understanding of the imperial religious policy and attitude towards Church institutions. This is most clearly illustrated by Marcian’s behaviour at Chalcedon, and by the active steps he took to produce an official and imperially endorsed edition of the conciliar acts. The significance of Marcian’s initiatives emerges more clearly when placed in the context of developing practices with respect to conciliar procedure (and the imperial role therein) and the circulation of conciliar information. After considering possible precedents in both these fields, the article reconstructs the early circulation and reception of the Chalcedonian acts, focusing particularly on the records of the sixth session, which was presided by the emperor himself. The author discusses the role played by the imperial initiative at the council and in its aftermath, and how it contributed to shape the reception of Marcian’s image as a Christian ruler.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198815013.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Ildar Garipzanov

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Political Culture ◽

Visual Representation ◽

Late Antique ◽

Methodological Framework ◽

Related Concept ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Cultural System ◽

Academic Literature ◽

Medieval Europe

The first section discusses definitions of the graphic sign and its typologies, and provides an overview of relevant academic literature. The second section highlights major historiographic trends in the study of graphic signs in the humanities from the early twentieth century to the present day. The next section outlines the relation of graphic signs to a wider corpus of graphic non-figurative data in the late antique Mediterranean and early medieval Europe with reference to the overarching methodological framework of visual thinking and graphic visualization and the related concept of early graphicacy, focusing particularly on the latter’s general cognitive aspects and intrinsic connection to the late antique and early medieval cultural system of visual representation. The concluding section defines the book’s subject, namely graphic signs of authority, outlines their functional usage in early medieval political culture, and summarizes the content of the following chapters.

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I. The Threefold Summons at Late Antique Church Councils

Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte Kanonistische Abteilung ◽

10.1515/zrgk-2021-0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 107 (1) ◽

pp. 1-47

Author(s):

Maria Constantinou

Keyword(s):

Roman Law ◽

Final Part ◽

Late Antique ◽

Nestorius Of Constantinople ◽

Judicial Procedure ◽

Church Councils ◽

Council Of Ephesus

Abstract The threefold summons of an absent defendant in the context of synodal proceedings – which had been admittedly formed by influence from the respective process in Roman law – is an important component of the ecclesiastical judicial procedure. In this paper I examine in detail all the extensive narratives of threefold summonses preserved in conciliar acts of the fifth and sixth centuries, that is, the cases of Nestorius of Constantinople and John of Antioch at the council of Ephesus (431), the case of the archimandrite Eutyches at the Resident Synod of Constantinople (448), the case of Athanasius of Perrhe at the local synods of Hierapolis (early 440s) and Antioch (445) as well as at the Council of Chalcedon (451), the case of Dioscorus of Alexandria at the Council of Chalcedon, and the case of Anthimus of Constantinople at the Resident Synod of Constantinople (536). In the final part I proceed to an assessment of this process’ evolution over the period in question. The principal conclusion is that by the time of Justinian the ecclesiastical threefold summons procedure had become consolidated and systematised.

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