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828 27. the definition and enforcement of orthodoxy
faith in which only four councils were mentioned. This met with little
success, and in fact the provinces of Milan and Aquileia openly rejected the
fifth council, thereby inaugurating the Aquileian or Istrian schism, which
was to last for over a century. This situation was exploited by the Arian
Lombards who invaded Italy in 568, since the church in Lombard territory
was in communion neither with Rome nor with Constantinople. 63
Justinian’s strenuous efforts in the direction of appeasing anti-
Chalcedonians and thereby restoring ecclesiastical unity continued to be
beset both by the separation of the Monophysites from Chalcedonian orthodoxy
and by splits within Monophysite ranks, which did not stop with the
Julianists and the Agnoetai. In about 577 John Ascotzangès, ‘Bottle Shoes’, so
called because he apparently wore shoes made from the same leather as drinking-bottles,
began to teach that in the Godhead there are three substances or
natures, just as there are three hypostases. 64 His disciple John Philoponus, an
Alexandrian intellectual, became the most able exponent of this doctrine,
although the bishops Conon of Tarsus and Eugenius of Seleucia also played
a prominent role. The doctrine, which involved an attempt to bring
Monophysite christological and trinitarian terminology into alignment by
using Aristotelian terms, became known as tritheism, despite the fact that it
was merely a verbal tritheism. Theodosius refuted tritheism in 560 in a tractate
that was accepted by the majority of Monophysites, although one group,
the Condobaudites, refused it recognition and withdrew. 65 Then the controversy
seemingly went into abeyance until after the death of Theodosius (566),
when certain signatories retracted their consent. Subsequently its history
goes hand-in-hand with the activities of Paul of Beit Ūkkāmē (‘Paul the
Black’). At the request of Theodosius, Paul the Black was ordained patriarch
of Antioch in c. 557. This was an unpopular move among Monophysites for
reasons which we cannot entirely explain, and led quickly to schism between
Jacob Baradaeus and his followers (Jacobites) and the Paulites.
Such was the disarray on the anti-Chalcedonian side when towards the
end of his reign Justinian himself, like not a few of his contemporaries both
Chalcedonian and Monophysite, espoused some of the tenets of Julianism.
This was opposed by senior clergy, notably the patriarchs Eutychius of
Constantinople and Anastasius of Antioch, who were consequently
deposed and exiled. The emperor was on the point of legislating for a
general acceptance of this doctrine when he died in 565. 66
iv. justinian’s successors
Justinian’s successor Justin II (565–78) initially had a conciliatory policy in
ecclesiastical matters. His first official command was to allow bishops in
63 Goubert (1965) 83; Meyendorff, Imperial Unity 311–12.
64 Mich. Syr. Chron. ed. Chabot ii.251–61.
65 Van Roey and Allen (1994) 129–43, esp. 137, with n. 60. 66 Evagr. HE iv.41.
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