Council of Serdica

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The Imperial Synod of Serdica (also Sardica or Serdika) was convened by the emperors Constans and Constantius II for 342 in Serdica (today's Sofia ) in order to secure religious peace in the Roman Empire. Around 170 bishops met in the city from autumn 342 onwards. The imperial council failed and was not recognized by the church as an ecumenical council .

Convocation and goal

Constantius II, ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire, had not wanted to accept the new, partly 'anti-Arian' confession of Nicea , since most Eastern Roman churches and bishops favored the traditional theology that prevailed there, influenced or shaped by the theology of Origen Was rejected. At the same time, Constantius had sent opponents of his church policy such as the vehemently 'anti-Arian' Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria and Markell of Ankyra into exile. These had found refuge in Rome, which in turn was very suspect to most of the bishops of the East. In the tradition of Origen, the bishops of the eastern part of the empire often advocated the doctrine of the three hypostases of God and suspected the followers of the Nicene creed, and in particular Markell, who spoke of a hypostasis of God, of Sabellianism .

In this situation of theological tensions, Constans, ruler of the Western Roman Empire, suggested to his brother Constantius to hold an imperial synod to secure religious peace. Constantius, repeatedly dependent on military support from his brother, agreed to it.

Split into two sub-councils

In Serdica, the bishops of the West had already accepted the bishops Athanasius and Markell who had traveled with them back into the church community. The bishops of the East, who arrived a little later, demanded that they be excluded as a condition to participate in the sessions of the Imperial Synod, since both had been condemned and deposed by synods - Athanasius in 335 by the Synod of Tire , Markell in 336 by the Synod of Constantinople . The bishops of the West insisted that the two had been rehabilitated by a Roman synod in 341. The bishops from Constantius' eastern part of the empire therefore gathered in the imperial palace, while the western bishops had moved into the city church. After the news soon arrived at the synod that Emperor Constantius had won a battle against an army of the Sassanid ruler Shapur II , the eastern bishops broke off negotiations, left the synod in Serdica and held a separate session in Philippopolis in late August 343 ( Plovdiv ), while the western bishops under the leadership of Ossius of Córdoba simply continued the imperial synod. However, both groups had previously excommunicated each other .

literature

  • Wilhelm Schneemelcher : Serdica 342. A contribution to the problem between East and West in the Old Church , in: ders., Collected essays on the New Testament and on Patristicism (Analecta Blatadon 22), Thessalonike 1974, pp. 338-364.
  • Klaus Martin Girardet : Imperial Court and Bishop's Court. Studies on the beginnings of the Donatist controversy (313-315) and on the trial of Athanasius of Alexandria (328-346) (Antiquas series 1, treatises on ancient history 21). Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn 1975. pp. 111–151.
  • Franz Dünzl : Small history of the Trinitarian dogma in the old church. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 2006, ISBN 3-451-28946-6 , pp. 87-95.
  • Stefan Klug: Alexandria and Rome. The history of the relationship between two churches in antiquity . Aschendorff Verlag , Münster / Westphalia 2014. pp. 202–204.

Remarks

  1. ^ Stefan Klug: Alexandria and Rome. The history of the relationship between two churches in antiquity . Aschendorff Verlag , Münster / Westphalia 2014, p. 202.
  2. ↑ Winrich Löhr : The 'Arianische' Streit , in: Peter Gemeinhardt (Ed.), Athanasius Handbuch . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2011, pp. 56–73, here pp. 63f.
  3. ↑ Hans-Dieter Döpmann : Church in Bulgaria from the beginnings to the present (=  writings of the German-Bulgarian Society for the Promotion of Relations between Germany and Bulgaria eV Series I =  Bulgarian Library ; New Series - Volume 11), Biblion-Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 9783932331909 , p. 11, note 5: Leslie William Barnard: "The Council of Serdica 343 AD", Synodal Verlag, Sofia 1983, here p. 65 .
  4. ↑ Franz Dünzl : Brief history of the Trinitarian dogma in the old church. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 2006, ISBN 3-451-28946-6 , p. 90.
  5. ↑ Pedro Barceló : Constantius II and his time. The beginnings of the state church . Klett-Cotta Verlag , Stuttgart 2004, p. 84.
  6. ^ Stefan Klug: Alexandria and Rome. The history of the relationship between two churches in antiquity . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster / Westphalia 2014, p. 203.