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Antipope Natalius | |
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Church | Adoptionism |
Installed | c. 199 |
Term ended | c. 200 |
Predecessor | Roman claimant: Victor I Zephyrinus Antipapal claimant: Antipapacy established |
Successor | Roman claimant: Zephyrinus Antipapal claimant: Hippolytus of Rome |
Opposed to | Pope Zephyrinus |
Natalius was a figure in early church history who is sometimes considered to be the first antipope of Rome. [1]
The only information about Natalius is a quote from an unnamed earlier writer by Eusebius, [2] telling of a 3rd-century priest who accepted the bishopric of the Adoptionists, [1] which was seen as a heretical group in Rome. Natalius soon repented and tearfully begged Pope Zephyrinus to receive him into communion. [3] [4]
According to the accounts, Natalius became the head of this Christian community, due to the influence of the theologians, Asclepius and Theodotus the Younger, disciples of Theodotus of Byzantium. Theodotus had been excommunicated in 190 by Pope Victor I for his teachings, and this caused a schism, albeit of small proportions, within the Church. Theodotus, a leather merchant and a scholar of Greek culture, argued that Jesus was at first an ordinary man, in whom the Logos, God or the Wisdom of God dwelt "as in a temple", as it had been with Moses and the prophets. This had happened at his baptism, when he received the divine grace or adoption (dynamis) and thus became equally divine, his divinity being inferior to that of the Father (God or Logos). This doctrine, called dynamic monarchianism, was both Ebionistic and Adhocianistic.[ citation needed ]
An antipope is a person who claims to be Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church in opposition to the legitimately elected pope. Between the 3rd and mid-15th centuries, antipopes were supported by factions within the Church itself and secular rulers.
Adoptionism, also called dynamic monarchianism, is an early Christian nontrinitarian theological doctrine, subsequently revived in various forms, which holds that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God at his baptism, his resurrection, or his ascension. How common adoptionist views were among early Christians is debated, but it appears to have been most popular in the first, second, and third centuries. Some scholars see adoptionism as the belief of the earliest followers of Jesus, based on the epistles of Paul and other early literature. However, adoptionist views sharply declined in prominence in the fourth and fifth centuries, as Church leaders condemned it as a heresy.
In Christianity, Christology is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Different denominations have different opinions on questions such as whether Jesus was human, divine, or both, and as a messiah what his role would be in the freeing of the Jewish people from foreign rulers or in the prophesied Kingdom of God, and in the salvation from what would otherwise be the consequences of sin.
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff or sovereign pontiff. Since the eighth century, the pope has been the sovereign of the Papal States and later the Vatican City State. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013.
Pope Honorius I was the bishop of Rome from 27 October 625 to his death. He was active in spreading Christianity among Anglo-Saxons and attempted to convince the Celts to calculate Easter in the Roman fashion. He is chiefly remembered for his correspondence with Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople over the latter's monothelite teachings. Honorius was posthumously anathematized, initially for subscribing to monothelitism, and later only for failing to end it. The anathema against Honorius I became one of the central arguments against the doctrine of papal infallibility.
Pope Callixtus I, also called Callistus I, was the bishop of Rome from c. 218 to his death c. 222 or 223. He lived during the reigns of the Roman emperors Elagabalus and Alexander Severus. Eusebius and the Liberian catalogue list his episcopate as having lasted five years (217–222). In 217, when Callixtus followed Zephyrinus as Bishop of Rome, he started to admit into the Church converts from sects or schisms. He was killed for being Christian and is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Pope Victor I was a Roman African prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Rome in the late second century. The dates of his tenure are uncertain, but one source states he became pope in 189 and gives the year of his death as 199. He was born in the Roman Province of Africa—probably in Leptis Magna. He was later considered a saint. His feast day is celebrated on 28 July as "St Victor I, Pope and Martyr". He was of Berber origin.
In Christian theology, historically patripassianism is a version of Sabellianism in the Eastern church. Modalism is the belief that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three different modes or emanations of one monadic God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons within the Godhead – that there are no real or substantial differences between the three, such that the identity of the Spirit or the Son is that of the Father.
In Christian theology, Sabellianism is the belief that there is only one Person in the Godhead. For example, Hanson defines Sabellianism as the "refusal to acknowledge the distinct existence of the Persons" and "Eustathius was condemned for Sabellianism. His insistence that there is only one distinct reality (hypostasis) in the Godhead, and his confusion about distinguishing Father, Son and Holy Spirit laid him open to such a charge." Condemned as heresy, Sabellianism has been rejected by the majority of Christian churches.
Pope Leo I, also known as Leo the Great, or Leo the Apostolic, was Bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death.
Pope Zephyrinus was the bishop of Rome from 199 to his death on 20 December 217. He was born in Rome, and succeeded Victor I. Upon his death on 20 December 217, he was succeeded by his principal advisor, Callixtus I. He is known for combating heresies and defending the divinity of Christ.
Monarchianism is a doctrine that emphasizes God as one indivisible being, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism, which defines the Godhead as three coeternal, consubstantial, co-immanent, and equally divine hypostases.
Paul of Samosata was Bishop of Antioch from 260 to 268 and the originator of the Paulianist heresy named after him. He was a believer in monarchianism, a nontrinitarian doctrine; his teachings reflect adoptionism.
Theodotus of Byzantium was an Adoptionist theologian from Byzantium, one of several named Theodotus whose writings were condemned as heresy in the early church.
The Gregorian Reforms were a series of reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII and the circle he formed in the papal curia, c. 1050–80, which dealt with the moral integrity and independence of the clergy. The reforms are considered to be named after Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), though he personally denied it and claimed his reforms, like his regnal name, honoured Pope Gregory I.
Artemon, a prominent Christian teacher in Rome, who held Adoptionist, or Nontrinitarian views. Little is known about his life.
Praxeas was a Monarchian from Asia Minor who lived in the end of the 2nd century/beginning of the 3rd century. He believed in the unity of the Godhead and vehemently disagreed with any attempt at division of the personalities or personages of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Christian Church. He was opposed by Tertullian in his tract Against Praxeas, and was influential in preventing the Roman Church from granting recognition to the New Prophecy.
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks ex cathedra is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the apostolic Church and handed down in Scripture and tradition". It does not mean that the pope cannot sin or otherwise err in some capacity, though he is prevented by the assistance of the Holy Spirit from issuing heretical teaching even in his non-infallible Magisterium, as a corollary of indefectibility. This doctrine, defined dogmatically at the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870 in the document Pastor aeternus, is claimed to have existed in medieval theology and to have been the majority opinion at the time of the Counter-Reformation.
The discipline and administration of the Latin Church underwent important changes from 1517 to 1585 during and Counter-Reformation, specifically at the Council of Trent.
Traditionally in Christianity, orthodoxy and heresy have been viewed in relation to the "orthodoxy" as an authentic lineage of tradition. Other forms of Christianity were viewed as deviant streams of thought and therefore "heterodox", or heretical. This view was challenged by the publication of Walter Bauer's Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum in 1934. Bauer endeavored to rethink Early Christianity historically, independent from the views of the current church. He stated that the 2nd-century church was very diverse and included many "heretical" groups that had an equal claim to apostolic tradition. Bauer interpreted the struggle between the orthodox and heterodox to be the "mainstream" Church of Rome struggling to attain dominance. He presented Edessa and Egypt as places where the "orthodoxy" of Rome had little influence during the 2nd century. As he saw it, the theological thought of the "Orient" at the time would later be labeled "heresy". The response by modern scholars has been mixed. Some scholars clearly support Bauer's conclusions and others express concerns about his "attacking [of] orthodox sources with inquisitional zeal and exploiting to a nearly absurd extent the argument from silence." However, modern scholars have critiqued and updated Bauer's model.