A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

Period III. The Dissolution Of The ImperialState Church And The Transition To TheMiddle Ages: From The Beginning Of TheSixth Century To The Latter Part Of TheEighthThe third period of the ancient Church under the Christian Empirebegins with the accession of Justin I (518-527), and theend of the first schism between Rome and Constantinople (519).The termination of the period is not so clearly marked. Bythe middle and latter part of the eighth century, however, theimperial Church has ceased to exist in its original conception.The Church in the East has become, in great part, a group ofnational schismatic churches under Moslem rulers, and only thelargest fragment of the Church of the East is the State Churchof the greatly reduced Eastern empire. In the West, the imperialinfluence has ceased, and the Roman see has allied its fortuneswith the rising Frankish power, and the rise of a Western empireis already foreshadowed.In this period, the imperial ecclesiastical system, which hadbegun with Constantine, found its completion in the Cæsaropapismwhich was definitively established by Justinian as theconstitution of the Eastern Church. But at the same time theMonophysite churches seceded and became permanent nationalchurches. The long Christological controversy found, at leastas regards Monophysitism, its settlement on a basis derivedfrom the revived Aristotelian philosophy; and the mystical pietyof the East, with its apparatus of hierarchy and sacraments, [539]found its characteristic expression in the works of Dionysius theAreopagite.While in the East the Church was assuming its permanent form,in the West the condition of the Church was being profoundly