Arius
Arius was a Libyan presbyter and ascetic, priest in Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God's uniqueness and the Christ's subordination under the Father, his opposition to what would become the dominant Christology, Homoousian Christology, made him a primary topic of the First Council of Nicaea, convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in 325. After Emperors Licinius and Constantine legalized and formalized the Christianity of the time in the Roman Empire, Constantine sought to unify the newly recognized Church and remove theological divisions; the Christian Church was divided over disagreements on Christology, or, the nature of the relationship between Jesus and God. Homoousian Christians, including Athanasius of Alexandria, used Arius and Arianism as epithets to describe those who disagreed with their doctrine of coequal Trinitarianism, a Homoousian Christology representing God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son as "of one essence" and coeternal.
Negative writings describe Arius's theology as one in which there was a time before the Son of God, when only God the Father existed. Despite concerted opposition, Arian Christian churches persisted throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa in various Germanic kingdoms, until suppressed by military conquest or voluntary royal conversion between the fifth and seventh centuries; the Son's precise relationship with the Father had been discussed for decades before Arius's advent. In fact, some Arians disavowed the name, claiming not to have been familiar with the man or his specific teachings. However, because the conflict between Arius and his foes brought the issue to the theological forefront, the doctrine he proclaimed—though not originated—is labeled as "his". Reconstructing the life and doctrine of Arius has proven to be a difficult task, as none of his original writings survive. Emperor Constantine ordered their burning while Arius was still living, any that survived this purge were destroyed by his Orthodox opponents.
Those works which have survived are quoted in the works of churchmen. This leads some — but not all — scholars to question their reliability. Arius was of Berber descent, his father's name is given as Ammonius. Arius is believed to have been a student at the exegetical school in Antioch, where he studied under Saint Lucian. Having returned to Alexandria, according to a single source, sided with Meletius of Lycopolis in his dispute over the re-admission of those who had denied Christianity under fear of Roman torture, was ordained a deacon under the latter's auspices, he was excommunicated by Bishop Peter of Alexandria in 311 for supporting Meletius, but under Peter's successor Achillas, Arius was re-admitted to Christian communion and in 313 made presbyter of the Baucalis district in Alexandria. Although his character has been assailed by his opponents, Arius appears to have been a man of personal ascetic achievement, pure morals, decided convictions. Paraphrasing Epiphanius of Salamis, an opponent of Arius, Catholic historian Warren H. Carroll describes him as "tall and lean, of distinguished appearance and polished address.
Women doted on him, touched by his appearance of asceticism. Men were impressed by his aura of intellectual superiority."Though Arius was accused by his opponents of being too liberal, too loose in his theology, engaging in heresy, some historians argue that Arius was quite conservative, that he deplored how, in his view, Christian theology was being too mixed with Greek paganism. Arius is notable because of his role in the Arian controversy, a great fourth-century theological conflict that led to the calling of the first ecumenical council of the Church; this controversy centered upon the nature of the Son of God, his precise relationship to God the Father. Before the council of Nicaea, the Christian world knew several competing Christological ideas. Church authorities did not put forth a uniform formula; the Nicaean formula was a concluded solution to the general Christological debate. The Trinitarian historian Socrates of Constantinople reports that Arius sparked the controversy that bears his name when Alexander of Alexandria, who had succeeded Achillas as the Bishop of Alexandria, gave a sermon stating the similarity of the Son to the Father.
Arius interpreted Alexander's speech as being a revival of Sabellianism, condemned it, argued that "if the Father begat the Son, he, begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this it is evident, that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore follows, that he had his substance from nothing." This quote describes the essence of Arius's doctrine. Socrates of Constantinople believed that Arius was influenced in his thinking by the teachings of Lucian of Antioch, a celebrated Christian teacher and martyr. In a letter to Patriarch Alexander of Constantinople Arius' bishop, Alexander of Alexandria, wrote that Arius derived his theology from Lucian; the express purpose of Alexander's letter was to complain of the doctrines that Arius was spreading, but his charge of heresy against Arius is vague and unsupported by other authorities. Furthermore, Alexander's language, like that of most controversialists in those days, is quite bitter and abusive. Moreover Alexander never accused Lucian of having taught Arianism.
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
Catharism
Catharism was a Christian dualist or Gnostic revival movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe what is now northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. The followers were known as Cathars and are now remembered for a prolonged period of persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognise their belief as being Christian. Catharism appeared in Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and this is when the name first appears; the adherents were sometimes known as Albigensians, after the city Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold. The belief system may have originated in the Byzantine Empire. Catharism was taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines, thus, some Catharist practices and beliefs varied by region and over time; the Catholic Church denounced its practices including the Consolamentum ritual, by which Cathar individuals were baptized and raised to the status of "perfect". Catharism may have had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and eastern Byzantine Anatolia and in the Bogomils of the First Bulgarian Empire, who were influenced by the Paulicians resettled in Thrace by the Byzantines.
Though the term Cathar has been used for centuries to identify the movement, whether the movement identified itself with this name is debated. In Cathar texts, the terms Good Men, Good Women, or Good Christians are the common terms of self-identification; the idea of two gods or principles, one good and the other evil, was central to Cathar beliefs. This was antithetical to the monotheistic Catholic Church, whose fundamental principle was that there was only one God, who created all things visible and invisible. Cathars believed that the good God was the God of the New Testament and the creator of the spiritual realm, they believed the evil God was the God of the Old Testament, creator of the physical world whom many Cathars, their persecutors, identified as Satan. Cathars thought human spirits were the genderless spirits of angels trapped in the material realm of the evil god, destined to be reincarnated until they achieved salvation through the consolamentum, when they could return to the benign God.
From the beginning of his reign, Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by sending missionaries and by persuading the local authorities to act against them. In 1208, Innocent's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was murdered while returning to Rome after excommunicating Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, who, in his view, was too lenient with the Cathars. Pope Innocent III abandoned the option of sending Catholic missionaries and jurists, declared Pierre de Castelnau a martyr and launched the Albigensian Crusade which all but ended Catharism; the origins of the Cathars' beliefs are unclear, but most theories agree they came from the Byzantine Empire by the trade routes and spread from the First Bulgarian Empire to the Netherlands. The name of Bulgarians was applied to the Albigensians, they maintained an association with the similar Christian movement of the Bogomils of Thrace. "That there was a substantial transmission of ritual and ideas from Bogomilism to Catharism is beyond reasonable doubt."
Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils and the Paulicians, who influenced them, as well as the earlier Marcionites, who were found in the same areas as the Paulicians, the Manicheans and the Christian Gnostics of the first few centuries AD, although, as many scholars, most notably Mark Pegg, have pointed out, it would be erroneous to extrapolate direct, historical connections based on theoretical similarities perceived by modern scholars. John Damascene, writing in the 8th century AD notes of an earlier sect called the "Cathari", in his book On Heresies, taken from the epitome provided by Epiphanius of Salamis in his Panarion, he says of them: "They reject those who marry a second time, reject the possibility of penance ". These are the same Cathari who are mentioned in Canon 8 of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in the year 325, which states "... F those called Cathari come over, let them first make profession that they are willing to communicate with the twice-married, grant pardon to those who have lapsed..."It is that we have only a partial view of their beliefs, because the writings of the Cathars were destroyed because of the doctrinal threat perceived by the Papacy.
Conclusions about Cathar ideology continue to be debated with commentators accusing their opponents of speculation and bias. There are a few texts from the Cathars themselves which were preserved by their opponents which give a glimpse of the inner workings of their faith, but these still leave many questions unanswered. One large text which has survived, The Book of Two Principles, elaborates the principles of dualistic theology from the point of view of some of the Albanenses Cathars, it is now agreed by most scholars that identifiable historical Catharism did not emerge until at least 1143, when the first confirmed report of a group espousing similar beliefs is reported being active at Cologne by the cleric Eberwin of Steinfeld. A landmark in the "institutional history" of the Cathars was the Council, held in 1167 at Saint-Félix-Lauragais, attended by many local figures and by the Bogomil papa Nicetas, the Cathar bishop of Fran
Roman Catholic Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fréjus–Toulon is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in southeastern France on the Mediterranean coast. In 1957 it was renamed as the Diocese of Fréjus–Toulon. A suffragan of the Archbishopric of Aix-en-Provence and Arles, it comprised the whole département of Var. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy the département of Var constituted a bishopric, absorbing the dioceses of Toulon, Fréjus and Vence, it was suppressed by the Concordat of 1801, re-established by that of 1817, definitively established in 1823. The arrondissement of Grasse, which until 1860 belonged to the département of Var, when it was annexed to that of the Alpes-Maritimes, was, in 1886, separated from Fréjus and attached to the Diocese of Nice. A Papal Brief of 1852 authorized the bishop to assume the title of Bishop of Toulon; the present diocese comprises the territory of the ancient Diocese of Fréjus as well as that of the ancient Diocese of Toulon. Since 16 May 2000, the Bishop of Fréjus–Toulon has been Bishop Dominique Marie Jean Rey.
On 18 September 2012, Bishop Rey was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as one of the papally-appointed Synod Fathers of the October 2012 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Christianity would seem to have been introduced into Fréjus in the fourth century. In 374 a certain Acceptus, who had just been elected to the See of Fréjus, falsely declared himself guilty of some crimes in order to rid himself of the episcopal dignity. At the Council of Valence, which met in July of 374, he begged the Church to name another in his place; the Council decided. Fréjus was destroyed by the Saracens in the early tenth century, it was Bishop Riculfus. The following are named among the bishops of this see: Raymond Berengarius, who arranged the marriage of Beatrice, daughter of the Count of Provence, with Charles of Anjou Jacques d'Euse, preceptor of St. Louis of Toulouse, pope under the name of John XXII Cardinal Nicolò Fieschi, who at the time of his death was dean of the Sacred College André-Hercule de Fleury.
The Island of Lérins, well known as the site of the celebrated monastery founded there in 410, was sold in 1859 by the bishop of Fréjus to an English purchaser. A number of the saints of Lérins are honoured in the diocese. Among them are Sts. Honoratus, Caesarius and Virgilius, all of whom became archbishop of Arles; the sojourn in 1482 of St. Francis of Paola at Bormes and at Fréjus, where he caused the cessation of the plague, made a lasting impression. Under Louis XIV, who enjoyed the right to nominate bishops to all French sees with the exception of Metz and Toul, the See of Fréjus was an early stepping-stone for careers of clerics whose ambitions lay elsewhere. Before 419 – 433: Leontius 433–455: Theodorus 463–465: Asterius 475?: Auxilius 484?–506: Victorinus? 524: Joannes 527–529: Lupercianus 541: Dionysius 549–554: Expectatus 582: Epiphanius 636: Martin... 909–911: Benedict 949–952: Gontar 973–1000?: Riculfus Suppressed 1801–1822 Charles-Alexandre de Richery Louis-Charles-Jean-Baptiste Michel Casimir-Alexis-Joseph Wicart Joseph-Antoine-Henri Jordany Joseph-Sébastien-Ferdinand Terris Fédéric-Henri Oury Eudoxe-Irénée-Edouard Mignot Aloys-Joseph-Eugène Arnaud Félix-Adolphe-Camille-Jean-Baptiste Guillibert Auguste-Joseph-Marie Simeone Auguste Joseph Gaudel Henri-Louis-Marie Mazerat Gilles-Henri-Alexis Barthe Joseph Théophile Louis Marie Madec Dominique Marie Jean Rey Catholic Church in France E. Clouzot and M. Prou, ed..
Recueil des historiens de la France: Pouillés. Tome 8. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale. Pp. 63 ff. Gams, Pius Bonifatius. Series episcoporum Ecclesiae catholicae: quotquot innotuerunt a beato Petro apostolo. Ratisbon: Typis et Sumptibus Georgii Josephi Manz. pp. 551–552. Eubel, Conradus. Hierarchia catholica, Tomus 1. Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list p. 252. Eubel, Conradus. Hierarchia catholica, Tomus 2. Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list p. 155. Eubel, Conradus. Hie
Heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory, at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of such beliefs. Heresy is distinct from both apostasy, the explicit renunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, blasphemy, an impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things; the term is used to refer to violations of important religious teachings, but is used of views opposed to any accepted ideas. It is used in particular in reference to Christianity and Islam. In certain historical Christian and Jewish cultures, among others, espousing ideas deemed heretical has been and in some cases still is met with censure ranging from excommunication to the death penalty; the term heresy, from Greek αἵρεσις meant "choice" or "thing chosen", but it came to mean the "party or school of a man's choice" and referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live.
The word "heresy" is used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, implies different meanings in each. The founder or leader of a heretical movement is called a heresiarch, while individuals who espouse heresy or commit heresy are known as heretics. Heresiology is the study of heresy. According to Titus 3:10 a divisive person should be warned twice before separating from him; the Greek for the phrase "divisive person" became a technical term in the early Church for a type of "heretic" who promoted dissension. In contrast correct teaching is called sound not only because it builds up the faith, but because it protects it against the corrupting influence of false teachers; the Church Fathers identified Judaism with heresy. They saw deviations from orthodox Christianity as heresies that were Jewish in spirit. Tertullian implied that it was the Jews who most inspired heresy in Christianity: "From the Jew the heretic has accepted guidance in this discussion " The use of the word "heresy" was given wide currency by Irenaeus in his 2nd century tract Contra Haereses to describe and discredit his opponents during the early centuries of the Christian community.
He described the community's beliefs and doctrines as orthodox and the Gnostics' teachings as heretical. He pointed out the concept of apostolic succession to support his arguments. Constantine the Great, who along with Licinius had decreed toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire by what is called the "Edict of Milan", was the first Roman Emperor baptized, set precedents for policy. By Roman law the Emperor was Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs of all recognized religions in ancient Rome. To put an end to the doctrinal debate initiated by Arius, Constantine called the first of what would afterwards be called the ecumenical councils and enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority; the first known usage of the term in a legal context was in AD 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I, which made Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as "heresy".
By this edict the state's authority and that of the Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and state was the sharing of state powers of legal enforcement with church authorities; this reinforcement of the Church's authority gave church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the church considered heretical. Within six years of the official criminalization of heresy by the Emperor, the first Christian heretic to be executed, was condemned in 386 by Roman secular officials for sorcery, put to death with four or five followers. However, his accusers were excommunicated both by Ambrose of Milan and Pope Siricius, who opposed Priscillian's heresy, but "believed capital punishment to be inappropriate at best and unequivocally evil"; the edict of Theodosius II provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius. Those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death. For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were known to execute those they considered heretics, including Catholics.
The last known heretic executed by sentence of the Catholic Church was Spanish schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll in 1826. The number of people executed as heretics under the authority of the various "ecclesiastical authorities" is not known. In the Catholic Church and willful manifest heresy is considered to spiritually cut one off from the Church before excommunication is incurred; the Codex Justinianus defines "everyone, not devoted to the Catholic Church and to our Orthodox holy Faith" a heretic. The Church had always dealt harshly with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 11th century these tended to centre on individual preachers or small localised sects, like Arianism, Donatism and Montanism; the diffusion of the Manichaean sect of Paulicians westwards gave birth to the famous 11th and 12th century heresies of Western Europe. The first one was that of Bogomils in modern-day Bosnia, a sort of sanctuary between Eastern and Western Christianity. By the 11th century, more organised groups such as the Patarini, the Dulcinians, the Waldensians and the Cathars were beginning to appear in the towns and cities of northern Italy, southern France and Flanders.
In France the Cathars gr
Charlemagne
Charlemagne or Charles the Great, numbered Charles I, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, Holy Roman Emperor from 800. He united much of central Europe during the Early Middle Ages, he was the first recognised emperor to rule from western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state that Charlemagne founded is called the Carolingian Empire, he was canonized by Antipope Paschal III. Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, born before their canonical marriage, he became king in 768 following his father's death as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. Carloman's sudden death in December 771 under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom, he continued his father's policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain. He campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianizing them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden.
He reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Rome's Old St. Peter's Basilica. Charlemagne has been called the "Father of Europe", as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empire and united parts of Europe that had never been under Frankish or Roman rule, his rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagne's empire, as did the French and German monarchies. However, the Eastern Orthodox Church views Charlemagne more controversially, labelling as heterodox his support of the filioque and the Pope's recognition of him as legitimate Roman Emperor rather than Irene of Athens of the Byzantine Empire; these and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for 14 years and as king for 46 years.
He was laid to rest in his imperial capital city of Aachen. He married at least four times and had three legitimate sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him. By the 6th century, the western Germanic tribe of the Franks had been Christianised, due in considerable measure to the Catholic conversion of Clovis I. Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle of Tertry, the Merovingians declined into powerlessness, for which they have been dubbed the rois fainéants. All government powers were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace. In 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry, he became the sole governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom: Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen. Pepin of Herstal was succeeded by his son Charles known as Charles Martel.
After 737, Charles declined to call himself king. Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. In 743, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne to curb separatism in the periphery, he was the last Merovingian king. Carloman resigned office in 746. Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power; the pope handed down his decision in 749, decreeing that it was better for Pepin to be called king, as he had the powers of high office as Mayor, so as not to confuse the hierarchy. He, ordered him to become the true king. In 750, Pepin was elected by an assembly of the Franks, anointed by the archbishop, raised to the office of king; the Pope ordered him into a monastery. The Merovingian dynasty was thereby replaced by the Carolingian dynasty, named after Charles Martel. In 753, Pope Stephen II fled from Italy to Francia, appealing to Pepin for assistance for the rights of St. Peter.
He was supported in this appeal by Charles' brother. In return, the pope could provide only legitimacy, he did this by again anointing and confirming Pepin, this time adding his young sons Carolus and Carloman to the royal patrimony. They thereby became heirs to the realm that covered most of western Europe. In 754, Pepin accepted the Pope's invitation to visit Italy on behalf of St. Peter's rights, dealing with the Lombards. Under the Carolingians, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an area including most of Western Europe. Orman portrays the Treaty of Verdun between the warring grandsons of Charlemagne as the foundation event of an independent France under its first king Charles the Bald; the middle kingdom had broken up by 890 and absorbed into the Western kingdom and the Eastern kingdom and the rest developing into smaller "buffer" nations that exist between Fr
Arianism
Arianism is a nontrinitarian Christological doctrine which asserts the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, begotten by God the Father at a point in time, a creature distinct from the Father and is therefore subordinate to him, but the Son is God. Arian teachings were first attributed to a Christian presbyter in Alexandria of Egypt; the teachings of Arius and his supporters were opposed to the theological views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father. There was a dispute between two interpretations of Jesus' divinity based upon the theological orthodoxy of the time, one trinitarian and the other non-trinitarian, both of them attempted to solve its respective theological dilemmas. So there were two orthodox interpretations which initiated a conflict in order to attract adepts and define the new orthodoxy.
The two interpretations initiated a broader conflict as to which belief was the successor of Christian theology from its inception. The former was formally affirmed by the first two Ecumenical Councils, in the past several centuries, Arianism has continued to be viewed as "the heresy or sect of Arius"; as such, all mainstream branches of Christianity now consider Arianism to be heterodox and heretical. The trinitarianism, or homoousianism viewpoint, was promulgated by Athanasius of Alexandria, who insisted that Homoousianism theology was both the true nature of God and the teaching of Jesus. Arius stated: "If the Father begat the Son he, begotten had a beginning in existence, from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not." Nonetheless, the Ecumenical First Council of Nicaea of 325, convened by Emperor Constantine to ensure Church unity, deemed Arianism to be a heresy." According to Everett Ferguson, "The great majority of Christians had no clear views about the nature of the Trinity and they did not understand what was at stake in the issues that surrounded it."Ten years however, Constantine the Great, himself baptized by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, convened another gathering of Church leaders at the regional First Synod of Tyre in 335, to address various charges mounted against Athanasius by his pro-Arius detractors, such as "murder, illegal taxation and treason", following his refusal to readmit Arius into fellowship.
Athanasius was exiled to Trier following his conviction at Tyre of conspiracy, Arius was exonerated. Athanasius returned to Alexandria in 346 A. D. two years after the deaths of both Arius and Constantine. The Roman Emperors Constantius II and Valens were Arians or Semi-Arians, as was the first King of Italy and the Lombards were Arians or Semi-Arians until the 7th century. Visigothic Spain was Arian until 581. Arianism is used to refer to other nontrinitarian theological systems of the 4th century, which regarded Jesus Christ—the Son of God, the Logos—as either a begotten creature or as neither uncreated nor created in the sense other beings are created. Arius had been a pupil of Lucian of Antioch at Lucian's private academy in Antioch and inherited from him a modified form of the teachings of Paul of Samosata, he taught that the Son of God did not always exist together eternally. Arians taught that the Logos was a divine being begotten by God the Father before the creation of the world, made him a medium through whom everything else was created, that the Son of God is subordinate to God the Father.
A verse from Proverbs was used: "The Lord created me at the beginning of his work". Therefore, the Son was rather the first and the most perfect of God's creatures, he was made "God" only by the Father's permission and power. Controversy over Arianism arose in the late 3rd century and persisted throughout most of the 4th century, it involved most church members—from simple believers and monks to bishops and members of Rome's imperial family. Two Roman emperors, Constantius II and Valens, became Arians or Semi-Arians, as did prominent Gothic and Lombard warlords both before and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire; 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 three hundred bishops in attendance at the Council of Nicea, two bishops did not sign the Nicene Creed that condemned Arianism. Emperor Constantine ordered a penalty of death for those who refused to surrender the Arian writings: In addition, if any writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames, so that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothing will be left to remind anyone of him.
And I hereby make a public order, that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed by Arius, not to have brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this offence, he shall be submitted for capital punishment.... Reconstructing what Arius taught, why, is a formidable task, both because little of his own w
