1.
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration and missionary activity.
The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin.
Eastern, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
2.
Thrace
It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey. In antiquity, it was referred to as Europe, prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe, the word itself was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from Ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, the region obviously took the name of the principal river there, probably from the Indo-European arg white river, according to an alternative theory, Hebros means goat in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, the historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into Asia, Libya and this largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time.
After the Macedonian conquest, this regions former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River and this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace, the largest cities of Thrace are, İstanbul, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Yambol, Alexandroupoli, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims, Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor, named Thrax, son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homers Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas, in the Iliad, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont, Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Lycurgus, Tegyrius, Polymnestor and Oeagrus.
In addition to the tribe that Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to other tribes, such as the Edones, Cicones. Thrace is mentioned in Ovids Metamorphoses in the episode of Philomela, Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, plot to get revenge, by killing Itys, at the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne, a swallow, Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hoopoe
3.
Papal renunciation
A papal renunciation occurs when the reigning pope of the Roman Catholic Church voluntarily steps down from his position. As the reign of the pope has conventionally been from election until death, before the 21st century, only five popes unambiguously resigned with historical certainty, all between the 10th and 15th centuries. Additionally, disputed claims of four popes having resigned date between the 3rd and 11th centuries, a disputed case may have involved an antipope. Additionally, a few popes during the saeculum obscurum were deposed, the development of canon law has been in favor of papal supremacy, leaving no recourse to remove a pope involuntarily. The most recent pope to resign was Benedict XVI, who vacated the Holy See on 28 February 2013 at 19,00 UTC and he was the first pope to do so since Gregory XII in 1415. Despite its common usage in discussion of papal renunciations, the abdication is not used in the official documents of the Church for renunciation by a pope. Both the 1983 Code and the 1917 Code make explicit that there is no individual or body of people to whom the pope must manifest his renunciation.
During the saeculum obscurum several popes were deposed or coerced into renunciation by political, John X is considered to have been deposed by some, but he seems to have died in prison before his successor Leo VI was elected anyway. As another example, consider the story of John XII, Leo VIII, John XII had been invalidly deposed by the Emperor Otto in 963, never renouncing his claim. Leo VIII was set up as an antipope by Otto at this time, John XII won back his rightful place in 964. When John XII died in 964, Benedict V was elected, Otto wanted Leo VIII put back on the papal throne and, using military might, forced Benedict to abdicate that same summer, Benedicts renunciation is considered valid. Leo VIII is considered the pope until his death in 965. The first historically unquestionable papal renunciation is that of Benedict IX in 1045. Then, in 1045, having regained the papacy for a few months, in order to rid the Church of the scandalous Benedict, Gregory himself resigned in 1046 because the arrangement he had entered into with Benedict could have been considered simony.
Gregory was followed by Clement II, and when Clement died, Benedict IX returned to be elected to the papacy for a third time and he thus reigned as pope for three non-consecutive terms, and resigned three separate times. A well-known renunciation of a pope is that of Celestine V, after only five months of pontificate, he issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a pope to resign, and did so himself. He lived two years as a hermit and prisoner of his successor Boniface VIII and was canonised. Celestines decree, and Boniface concurring, ended any doubt among canonists about the possibility of a valid papal renunciation, before resigning, he formally convened the already existing Council of Constance and authorized it to elect his successor
4.
Aquileia
Aquileia was founded as a colony by the Romans in 180/181 BC along the Natiso River, on land south of the Julian Alps but about 13 kilometres north of the lagoons. In fact, the chosen for Aquileia was about 6 km from where an estimated 12,000 Celtic Taurisci nomads had attempted to settle in 183 BC. However, since the 13th century BC, the site, on the river and it is, theoretically not unlikely that Aquileia had been a Gallic oppidum even before the coming of the Romans. However, few Celtic artifacts have been discovered from 500 BC to the Roman arrival, each of the men had first hand knowledge of Cisalpine Gaul. Nasica had conquered the Boii in 191, flaminius had overseen the construction of the road named after him from Bologna to Arezzo. Acidinus had conquered the Taurisci in 183, the triumvirate led 3,000 families to settle the area meaning Aquileia probably had a population of 20,000 soon after its founding. Meanwhile, based on the evidence of names chiseled on stone, the majority of colonizing families came from Picenum and Campania, among these colonists, pedites received 50 iugera of land each, centuriones received 100 iugera each, and equites received 140 iugera each.
Either at the founding or not long afterward, colonists from the nearby Veneti supplemented these families, roads soon connected Aquileia with the Roman colony of Bologna probably in 173 BC. The construction of the Via Popilia from the Roman colony of Ariminium to Ad Portum near Altinum in 132 BC improved communications still further. In the 1st century AD, the Via Gemina would link Aquileia with Emona to the east of the Julian Alps and it had, in times at least, considerable brickfields. In 90 BC, the original Latin colony became a municipium, the customs boundary of Italy was close by in Ciceros day. Caesar visited the city on a number of occasions and pitched winter camp nearby in 59-58 BC, although the Iapydes plundered Aquileia during the Augustan period, subsequent increased settlement and no lack of profitable work meant the city was able to develop its resources. Jewish artisans established a trade in glasswork. Metal from Noricum was forged and exported, the ancient Venetic trade in amber from the Baltic continued.
Wine, especially its famous Pucinum was exported, oil was imported from Proconsular Africa. By sea, the port of Aquae Gradatae, modern Grado, augustus was the first of a number of emperors to visit Aquileia, notably during the Pannonian wars in 12‑10 BC. It was the birthplace of Tiberius son by Julia, in the latter year, the Roman poet Martial praised Aquileia as his hoped for haven and resting place in his old age. In terms of religion, the populace adopted the Roman pantheon, although the Celtic sungod, Jews practiced their ancestral religion and it was perhaps some of these Jews who became the first Christians
5.
Papal name
A papal name is the regnal name taken by a pope. Both the head of the Catholic Church, usually known as the Pope, as of 2016 Francis is the Catholic Pope, and Tawadros II or Theodoros II is the Coptic Pope. This article discusses and lists the names of Catholic Popes, another article has a list of Coptic Orthodox Popes of Alexandria. While popes in the early centuries retained their names after their accession to the papacy. This first started in the century and became customary in the 10th century. Since 1555, every pope has taken a papal name and it is customary when referring to popes to translate the regnal name into local languages. Thus, for example, Papa Franciscus, is Papa Francesco in Italian, Papa Francisco in his native Spanish, the official style of the Catholic Pope in English is His Holiness Pope. Holy Father is another often used for popes. The official title of the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is Pope of Alexandria, the Successor of St. Mark the Evangelist, Holy Apostle and Martyr, on the Holy Apostolic Throne of the Great City of Alexandria.
He is considered to be Father of Fathers, Hierarch of all Hierarchs Honorary titles attributed to the Hierarch of the Alexandrine Throne are The Pillar and Defender of the Holy, Apostolic Church and of the Orthodox Faith. The Dean of the Great Catechetical School of Theology of Alexandria, the Ecumenical Judge of the Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church. The Thirteenth among the Holy Apostles, during the first centuries of the church, the bishops of Rome continued to use their baptismal names after their elections. In the 10th century clerics from beyond the Alps, especially Germany and France, acceded to the papacy, the last pope to use his baptismal name was Marcellus II in 1555, a choice that was even quite exceptional. Names are freely chosen by popes, and not based on any system, names of immediate or distant predecessors, saints, or even family members—as was the case with John XXIII—have been adopted. John Paul I was the first pope in almost 1,100 years since Lando in 913 to adopt a name that had not previously been used.
After John Paul Is sudden death a month later, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła was elected and, wishing to continue his predecessors work, Benedict XVIs own reign, which ended with his resignation on 28 February 2013, lasted less than 8 years. Saint Peter was the first Pope, no Pope of Rome has chosen the name Peter II, since the 1970s some antipopes, with only a minuscule following, took the name Pope Peter II. Probably because of the controversial fifteenth-century antipope known as Pope John XXIII, immediately after John XXIIIs election as pope in 1958, it was not known if he would be John XXIII or XXIV, he decided that he would be known as John XXIII
6.
Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, reigned as Pope from 16 June 1846 to his death in 1878. He was the elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate Pius IX convened the First Vatican Council, which decreed papal infallibility and he was the last pope to rule as the Sovereign of the Papal States, which fell completely to the Italian Army in 1870 and were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. After this, he was referred to—chiefly by himself—as the Prisoner of the Vatican, after his death in 1878, his canonization process was opened on 11 February 1907 by Pope Pius X and it drew considerable controversy over the years. It was closed on several occasions during the pontificates of Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pius XII re-opened the cause on 7 December 1954, and Pope John Paul II proclaimed him Venerable on 6 July 1985. Together with Pope John XXIII, he was beatified on 3 September 2000 after the recognition of a miracle, Pius IX was assigned the liturgical feast day of February 7, the date of his death.
Europe, including the Italian peninsula, was in the midst of political ferment when the bishop of Spoleto. He took the name Pius, after his generous patron and the prisoner of Napoleon Bonaparte. Through the 1850s and 1860s, Italian nationalists made military gains against the Papal States, concordats were concluded with numerous states such as Austria-Hungary, Spain, Tuscany, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti. Many contemporary Church historians and journalists question his approaches, in his Syllabus of Errors, still highly controversial, Pius IX condemned the heresies of secular society, especially modernism. He was a Marian pope, who in his encyclical Ubi primum described Mary as a Mediatrix of salvation, in 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin. In 1862, he convened 300 bishops to the Vatican for the canonization of Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan and his most important legacy is the First Vatican Council, which convened in 1869.
The council is considered to have contributed to a centralization of the Church in the Vatican, Pius IX was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000. His Feast Day is 7 February, Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti was born on May 13,1792. He was educated at the Piarist College in Volterra and in Rome, as a theology student in his hometown Sinigaglia, in 1814 he met Pope Pius VII, who had returned from French captivity. In 1815, he entered the Papal Noble Guard but was dismissed after an epileptic seizure. He threw himself at the feet of Pius VII, who elevated him, the pope originally insisted that another priest should assist Mastai during Holy Mass, a stipulation that was rescinded, after the seizure attacks became less frequent. Mastai was ordained priest on April 10,1819 and he initially worked as the rector of the Tata Giovanni Institute in Rome
7.
Rome
Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was taken up by Ovid and Livy. Rome is called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism.
Famous artists, painters and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum.
Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
8.
Antipope Felix II
In May 357 AD the Roman laity, which had remained faithful to Liberius, demanded that Constantius, who was on a visit to Rome, should recall Liberius. However, a recent source says that of the martyr Felix nothing is known except his name, that he was a martyr. The Catholic Encyclopedia remarked that the story of the antipope was lost and he obtained in local Roman history the status of a saint. As such he appears in the Roman Martyrology on 29 July, at that time the Roman Martyrology had the following text, At Rome, on the Aurelian Way, St. Felix II, pope and martyr. Being expelled from his See by the Arian emperor Constantius for defending the Catholic faith and his body was taken away from that place by clerics, and buried on the Aurelian Way. This entry was based on what the Catholic Encyclopedia called legends that confound the relative positions of Felix and Liberius. More recent editions of the Roman Martyrology have instead, At Rome, at the third milestone on the Via Portuensis, in the dedicated to his name, Saint Felix.
The feast day of the Roman martyr Felix is 29 July, the antipope Felix died, as stated above, on a 22 November, and his death was not a martyrs, occurring when the Peace of Constantine had been in force for half a century. As well as the Roman Martyrology, the Roman Missal identified the Saint Felix of 29 July with the antipope and this identification, still found in the 1920 typical edition, does not appear in the 1962 typical edition. To judge by the Marietti printing of 1952, which omits the numeral II and the word Papae, one Catholic writer excuses this by saying that the antipope himself did refuse to accept Arianism, and so his feast has been kept in the past on. The Papal Schism between Liberius and Felix Catholic Encyclopedia, Felix II Encyclopædia Britannica, Felix 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Felix II
9.
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence. A large part of the Camargue is located on the territory of the commune, the city has a long history, and was of considerable importance in the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. The Roman and Romanesque Monuments of Arles were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1981, the Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh lived in Arles from 1888 to 1889 and produced over 300 paintings and drawings during his time there. An international photography festival has held in the city since 1970. The river Rhône forks into two branches just upstream of Arles, forming the Camargue delta and its area is 758.93 km2, which is more than seven times the area of Paris. Arles has a Mediterranean climate with an annual temperature of 14.6 °C. The summers are warm and moderately dry, with averages between 22 °C and 24 °C, and mild winters with a mean temperature of about 7 °C.
The city is constantly, but especially in the months, subject to the influence of the mistral. Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed from September to May, with the summer drought being less marked than in other Mediterranean areas, the Ligurians were in this area from about 800 BC. Later, Celtic influences have been discovered, the city became an important Phoenician trading port, before being taken by the Romans. The Romans took the town in 123 BC and expanded it into an important city, however, it struggled to escape the shadow of Massalia further along the coast. Its chance came when it sided with Julius Caesar against Pompey, Massalia backed Pompey, when Caesar emerged victorious, Massalia was stripped of its possessions, which were transferred to Arelate as a reward. The town was established as a colony for veterans of the Roman legion Legio VI Ferrata. Its full title as a colony was Colonia Iulia Paterna Arelatensium Sextanorum, Arelate was a city of considerable importance in the province of Gallia Narbonensis.
It covered an area of some 99 acres and possessed a number of monuments, including an amphitheatre, triumphal arch, Roman circus, ancient Arles was closer to the sea than it is now and served as a major port. It had the southernmost bridge on the Rhône, very unusually, the Roman bridge was not fixed but consisted of a pontoon-style bridge of boats, with towers and drawbridges at each end. The boats were secured in place by anchors and were tethered to twin towers built just upstream of the bridge and this unusual design was a way of coping with the rivers frequent violent floods, which would have made short work of a conventional bridge. Nothing remains of the Roman bridge, which has replaced by a more modern bridge near the same spot
10.
Arianism
Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt. The teachings of Arius and his supporters were opposed to the views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity. The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten by God the Father, there was a dispute between two interpretations based upon the theological orthodoxy of the time, both of them attempted to solve its theological dilemmas. So there were, two equally orthodox interpretations which initiated a conflict in order to attract adepts and define the new orthodoxy, homoousianism was formally affirmed by the first two Ecumenical Councils. All mainstream branches of Christianity now consider Arianism to be heterodox, the Ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325 deemed it to be a heresy. According to Everett Ferguson, The great majority of Christians had no clear views on the Trinity, at the regional First Synod of Tyre in 335, Arius was exonerated.
Constantine the Great was baptized by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, after the deaths of both Arius and Constantine, Arius was again anathemised and pronounced a heretic again at the Ecumenical First Council of Constantinople of 381. The Roman Emperors Constantius II and Valens were Arians or Semi-Arians, as was the first King of Italy and the Lombards till the 7th century. Arius had been a pupil of Lucian of Antioch at Lucians private academy in Antioch and he taught that God the Father and the Son of God did not always exist together eternally. A verse from Proverbs was used, The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the Son was rather the very first and the most perfect of Gods creatures, and he was made God only by the Fathers permission and power. Controversy over Arianism arose in the late 3rd century and persisted throughout most of the 4th century and it involved most church members—from simple believers and monks to bishops and members of Romes imperial family. Two Roman emperors, Constantius II and Valens, became Arians or Semi-Arians, as did prominent Gothic, such a deep controversy within the Church during this period of its development could not have materialized without significant historical influences providing a basis for the Arian doctrines.
Of the roughly three hundred bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicea, two bishops did not sign the Nicene Creed, which condemned Arianism, Arians do not believe in the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. The letter of Arian Auxentius regarding the Arian missionary Ulfilas gives a picture of Arian beliefs. Arian Ulfilas, who was ordained a bishop by Arian Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work as a missionary, God, the Father, always existing, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, begotten before time began and who is Lord/Master. By the 8th century it had ceased to be the tribes mainstream belief as the tribal rulers gradually came to adopt Nicene orthodoxy. This trend began in 496 with Clovis I of the Franks, Reccared I of the Visigoths in 587, the remaining tribes – the Vandals and the Ostrogoths – did not convert as a people nor did they maintain territorial cohesion. Having been militarily defeated by the armies of Emperor Justinian I, the Vandalic War of 533–534 dispersed the defeated Vandals
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Liberius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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