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John III Of Constantinople

John III of Constantinople

John Scholasticus (died August 31, 577) was the 32nd patriarch of Constantinople from April 12, 565 until his death in 577. He was born at Sirimis, in the region of Cynegia, near Antioch. There was a flourishing college of lawyers at Antioch, where he entered and did himself credit. This was suppressed in 533 by Justinian I. John was ordained and became agent and secretary of his church. This would bring him into touch with the court at Constantinople. When Justinian, towards the close of his life, tried to raise the sect of the Aphthartodocetae to the rank of orthodoxy, and determined to expel the blameless Eutychius for his opposition, the able lawyer-ecclesiastic of Antioch, who had already distinguished himself by his great edition of the canons, was chosen to carry out the imperial will. He was also credited for methodical classification of canon law, the Digest of Canon Law. Following some older work which he mentions in his preface, he abandoned the historical plan of giving the decrees of each council in order and arranged them on a philosophical principle, according to their matter. The older writers had sixty heads, but he reduced them to fifty. To the canons of the councils of Nicaea, Ancyra, Neocaesarea, Gangra, Antioch, Ephesus, and Constantinople, already collected and received in the Greek church, John added 89 "Apostolical Canons," the 21 of Sardica, and the 68 of the canonical letter of Basil. Writing to Photius, pope Nicholas I cites a harmony of the canons which includes those of Sardica, which could only be that of John the Lawyer. When John came to Constantinople, he edited the Nomocanon, an abridgment of his former work, with the addition of a comparison of the imperial rescripts and civil laws (especially the Novels of Justinian) under each head. Balsamon cites this without naming the author, in his notes on the first canon of the Trullan council of Constantinople. In a MS. of the Paris library the Nomocanon is attributed to Theodoret, but in all others to John. Theodoret would not have inserted the "apostolical canons" and those of Sardica, and the style has no resemblance to his. In 1661 these two works were printed at the beginning of vol. ii. of the Bibliotheca Canonica of Justellus, at Paris. Photius (Cod. lxxv.) mentions his catechism, in which he established the Catholic teaching of the consubstantial Trinity, saying that he wrote it in 568, under Justin II, and that it was afterwards attacked by the impious Philoponus. Fabricius considers that the Digest or Harmony and the Nomocanon are probably rightly assigned to John the Lawyer. Little is known of his episcopal career. Seven months after his appointment Justinian died. The new emperor, Justin II, was crowned by the patriarch, November 14, 565. He organized a compromise between the Chalcedonians and Monophysites in 567, and temporarily reunited the two sects in 571 until the Monophysites rejected the doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon once more later that year. John died shortly before Justin in 577. Fabricius, xi. 101, xii. 146, 193, 201, 209; Evagr. H. E. iv. 38, v. 13, Patr. Gk. lxxxvi. pt. 2; Theoph. Chronogr. 204, etc., Patr. Gk. cviii.; Niceph. Callist. iii. 455, Patr. Gk. cxlvii.; Victor Tunun. Patr. Lat. lxviii. 937; Baronius, ad. ann. 564, xiv. xxix.; 565, xvii.; 578, 5; Patr. Constant. in Acta SS. Bolland. Aug. i. p.
- 67.

Sources


- Category:577 deaths Category:Patriarchs of Constantinople

August 31

August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining, as the final day of August.

Events


- 1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora dies suddenly without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty
- 1864 - American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1876 - Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
- 1886 - Earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina
- 1888 - Mary Ann Nicholls is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims
- 1895 - John Brallier is paid US$10 plus expenses to play football for the Latrobe, Pennsylvania YMCA, making him the first professional football player.
- 1897 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
- 1907 - England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente alliance.
- 1914 - Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1915 - Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
- 1920 - First news radio program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1931 - Production of Ford Motor Company's Ford Modelends, with 4.3 million produced.
- [[1939]] - [[Nazi Germany
mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.
- 1943 - The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
- 1945 - The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
- 1957 - The Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1962 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
- 1965 - The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes it's first flight.
- 1978 - William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
- 1980 - The Solidarity trade union is formed in Poland.
- 1985 - Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California.
- 1986 - An Aeroméxico Douglas DC-9 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
- 1986 - The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 398.
- 1989 - Buckingham Palace officials confirm that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are to be separated.
- 1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo after a multiparty presidential election, ending a long history of one-party oppressive rule under the Congolese Workers Party.
- 1994 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
- 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris.
- 1998 - North Korea reportedly launchs Kwangmyongsong, its first satellite.
- 1999 - The first of a series of Russian Apartment Bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.
- 2004 - Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ is released on DVD and VHS in stores across the United States, selling approximately 4.1 million copies by the end of the day.
- 2005 - A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.

Births


- 12 - Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
- 161 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)
- 1569 - Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1627)
- 1663 - Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d. 1705)
- 1721 - George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (d. 1775)
- 1811 - Theophile Gautier, French poet and novelist (d. 1872)
- 1821 - Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (d. 1894)
- 1834 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d. 1886)
- 1870 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (d. 1952)
- 1878 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
- 1879 - Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel (d. 1964)
- 1880 - Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
- 1885 - DuBose Heyward, American playwright (d. 1940)
- 1897 - Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
- 1903 - Arthur Godfrey, American television host (d. 1983)
- 1907 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (d. 1957)
- 1907 - William Shawn, American editor (d. 1992)
- 1908 - William Saroyan, American novelist and playwright (d. 1981)
- 1913 - Sir Bernard Lovell, British radio astronomer
- 1914 - Richard Basehart, American actor (d. 1984)
- 1916 - Daniel Schorr, American journalist
- 1918 - Alan Jay Lerner, American composer (d. 1986)
- 1924 - Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (d. 2003)
- 1928 - James Coburn, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1931 - Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1935 - Frank Robinson, baseball player and manager
- 1935 - Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d. 1998)
- 1938 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
- 1945 - Van Morrison, Irish musician
- 1945 - Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist
- 1948 - Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter
- 1948 - Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist (Scorpions)
- 1949 - Richard Gere, American actor
- 1949 - H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 - György Károly, Hungarian author
- 1956 - Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
- 1958 - Edwin Moses, American athlete
- 1961 - Anri, Japanese Singer
- 1968 - Todd Carty, British actor
- 1970 - Deborah Gibson, American singer
- 1970 - Queen Rania, Queen of Jordan and wife of King Abdullah II
- 1972 - Chris Tucker, American actor
- 1977 - Jeff Hardy, American professional wrestler
- 1977 - Craig Nicholls, Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines)
- 1982 - Jose Reina, Spanish footballer

Deaths


- 651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary
- 1056 - Theodora, Byzantine Empress (b. 981)
- 1234 - Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (b. 1212)
- 1372 - Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (b. 1301)
- 1422 - King Henry V of England (b. 1387)
- 1645 - Francesco Bracciolini, Italian poet (b. 1566)
- 1654 - Ole Worm, Danish physician (b. 1588)
- 1688 - John Bunyan, English writer (b. 1628)
- 1741 - Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b. 1681)
- 1772 - William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
- 1782 - George Croghan, American colonist
- 1795 - François-André Danican Philidor, French chess player (b. 1726)
- 1799 - Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (b. 1720)
- 1814 - Arthur Phillip, British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales (b. 1738)
- 1867 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet (b. 1821)
- 1920 - Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (b. 1832)
- 1941 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (b. 1892)
- 1963 - Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)
- 1967 - Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer (b. 1891)
- 1969 - Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)
- 1973 - John Ford, American film director (b. 1894)
- 1979 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (b. 1904)
- 1985 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
- 1986 - Henry Moore, English sculptor (b. 1898)
- 1986 - Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)
- 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales (automobile accident) (b. 1961)
- 1997 - Dodi Fayed, Egyptian-born film producer (automobile accident) (b. 1955)
- 2002 - Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player (b. 1908)
- 2002 - George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Carl Wayne, English singer (b. 1943)
- 2005 - Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1908)
- 2005 - Michael Sheard, British actor (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances


- Calendar of Saints - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, San Abbondio, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
- Moldova: Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra)
- Malaysia - Hari Merdeka, a National Day (independence within the Commonwealth, 1957)
- Kyrgyzstan - Independence Day (from USSR, 1991)
- Trinidad and Tobago - Independence Day (from Great Britain, 1962)
- United Kingdom - the cut-off day which defines the school year for pupils.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/31 BBC: On This Day] ----- August 30 - September 1 - July 31 - September 30 -- listing of all days ko:8월 31일 ms:31 Ogos ja:8月31日 simple:August 31 th:31 สิงหาคม

Patriarch of Constantinople

The Patriarch of Constantinople is the Ecumenical Patriarch, the "first among equals" in the Eastern Orthodox communion. In this capacity he is first in honor among all the Orthodox bishops, presides over any council of bishops in which he takes part and serves as primary spokesman for the communion, but has no jurisdiction over the other patriarchs or the other autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches. In addition to being spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, he is the direct administrative head of some four million Ukrainian, Greek, Carpatho-Russian and Albanain Orthodox in the U.S., Canada and Central and South America. His titular position is Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, one of the sixteen autocephalous churches and one of the five Christian centers comprising the ancient Pentarchy. In his role as head of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, he additionally holds the title Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome. He should not be confused with the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, an office that is now extinct. His official title is "His Most Divine All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch". As Constantine the Great had made Byzantium "New Rome" in 330, it was thought appropriate that its bishop, once a suffragan of Heraclea, should become second only to the Bishop of Old Rome. Soon after the transfer of the Roman capital, the bishopric was elevated to an archbishopric. For many decades Roman popes opposed this ambition, not because anyone thought of disputing their first place, but because they were unwilling to change the old order of the hierarchy. In 381, however, the First Council of Constantinople declared that: "The Bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honour after the Bishop of Rome, because it is New Rome" (can. iii). Popes Damasus and Gregory the Great refused to confirm this canon, a very unusual and controversial step, as Ecumenical Councils were considered binding on all Christian churches. Nonetheless, the prestige of the office continued to grow under the patronage of the Byzantine emperor. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 established Constantinople as a patriarchate with jurisdiction over Asia Minor, and Thrace, appellate jurisdiction over canon law decisions by the other patriarchs; and the second place in primacy after Rome (can. xxviii). Pope Leo I refused to admit this canon, claiming it was invalid since it was made in the absence of his legates, again a controversial position. In the 6th century, the official title of the bishop became "Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch". The current Patriarch is Bartholomew I.

Issues of Religious Freedom

When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, now Istanbul, both the Emperor and the Patriarch were killed. The position of head of the Orthodox Church was given to Gennadius II Scholarius by the conquering Islamic Ottoman ruler, Sultan Mehmed II. The modern Turkish state requires the Patriarch to be a Turkish citizen but allows the Synod of Constantinople to elect him. Human rights groups, EU governements, and the U.S. government, have long protested conditions placed by the government of Turkey on the Ecumenical Patriarch. For example, the Ecumenical status accorded him within Eastern Orthodoxy, and recognized by Ottoman governments, has on occasion been a source of controversy within the Republic of Turkey, which under its laws regarding religious minorities officially recognizes him as only the "Patriarch of Fener." (Fener is the district in Istanbul where his headquarters are located.) Expropriation of Church property and the the closing of the Orthodox Theological School are also cited by human rights groups.

Notes and References

# "Ecumencial Patriarchate of Constantinople", Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 Deluxe Edition CD-ROM.

See also


- List of Constantinople patriarchs
- Patriarch

External links


- [http://www.patriarchate.org Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]
- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byzantium/texts/byzpatcp.html
- http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35489.htm
- http://www.archons.org/pdf/yalelawstudy.pdf | Lowenstein International Human Rights Center (Yale Law School) on Rights problems at the Patriarchate
- http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=98&Region_id=0&Issue_id=0&ContentType=G&CFID=3285732&CFTOKEN=56116027 United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe report on the Patriarchate Category:Christian leaders Category:Eastern Orthodoxy Category:Patriarchs of Constantinople ko:콘스탄티노플 총대주교

April 12

April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). There are 263 days remaining.

Events


- 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire
- 1606 - The Union Jack is adopted as the national flag of Great Britain.
- 1633 - The formal interrogation by the Inquisition of Galileo Galilei begins.
- 1861 - American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Fort Pillow massacre -- Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest kill most of the African American soldiers who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee
- 1865 - American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army.
- 1877 - The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal.
- 1923 - Kandersteg International Scout Centre came into existence.
- 1926 - By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
- 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England
- 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States.
- 1946 - Syria gains independence from France.
- 1954 - Bill Haley and His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City. Initially unsuccessful, the recording would help launch the Rock and Roll revolution a year later.
- 1955 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
- 1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.
- 1968 - Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
- 1975 - Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- 1980 - Terry Fox began his trans-Canada marathon to raise money for cancer research (Marathon of Hope) by dipping his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean at St. John's, Newfoundland, aiming to dip it again in the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver, British Columbia.
- 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
- 1984- LiSARS is created
- 1989 - TV Show Fast Forward starts on The ATN-7 Network (Australia).
- 1990 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC.
- 1992 - Euro Disneyland opens in Marne-la-Vallee, France.
- 1994 - Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
- 1998 - Catastrophical earthquake in Slovenia in Posočje 5,6 on the Richter scale.
- 2002 - Coup d'Etat against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.
- 2005 - In Canada, a motion by the opposition Conservative Party to kill legislation opening the door for legalized same sex marriage is defeated 164-132.

Births

599 BC to 1899


- 599 BC - Mahavira, Indian founder of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
- 812 - Muhammad at-Taqi, Arabian Shia Imam (d. 835)
- 1484 - Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (d. 1546)
- 1500 - Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (d. 1574)
- 1526 - Muretus, French humanist (d. 1585)
- 1550 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1604)
- 1577 - King Christian IV of Denmark (d. 1648)
- 1713 - Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (d. 1796)
- 1722 - Pietro Nardini, Italian composer (d. 1793)
- 1724 - Lyman Hall, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1790)
- 1726 - Charles Burney, English music historian (d. 1814)
- 1748 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
- 1777 - Henry Clay, American statesman and five-time Presidential candidate (d. 1852)
- 1799 - Henri Druey, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1855)
- 1823 - Alexandr Ostrovsky, Russian dramatist (d. 1886)
- 1839 - Nikolai Przhevalsky, Russian explorer (d. 1888)
- 1856 - William Martin Conway, English art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937)
- 1869 - Henri Désiré Landru, French serial killer (d. 1922)
- 1884 - Otto Meyerhof, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1951)
- 1887 - Harold Lockwood, American silent film actor (d. 1918)
- 1888 - Heinrich Neuhaus, Soviet pianist (d. 1964)
- 1892 - Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (d. 1940)
- 1893 - Robert Harron, American actor (d. 1920)
- 1898 - Lily Pons, American soprano (d. 1976)

1900 to 1999


- 1902 - Louis Beel, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
- 1903 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
- 1903 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- 1907 - Felix de Weldon, Austrian-born sculptor (d. 2003)
- 1908 - Lionel Hampton, American musician (d. 2002)
- 1912 - Walt Gorney, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1916 - Beverly Cleary, American writer
- 1917 - Helen Forrest, American singer (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Tiny Tim, American musician (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Ann Miller, American actress and dancer (d. 2004)
- 1928 - Hardy Krüger, German actor
- 1928 - Jean-François Paillard, French conductor
- 1932 - Dennis Banks, American activist
- 1932 - Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan Politician (assassinated) (d. 2005)
- 1933 - Montserrat Caballé, Catalan soprano
- 1939 - Alan Ayckbourn, English writer
- 1940 - Herbie Hancock, American pianist and composer
- 1941 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (d. 1993)
- 1944 - John Kay, German-born musician (Steppenwolf)
- 1946 - Ed O'Neill, American actor
- 1947 - Tom Clancy, American author
- 1947 - David Letterman, American talk show host
- 1948 - Jeremy Beadle, British television presenter
- 1948 - Joschka Fischer, Foreign Minister of Germany
- 1948 - Sandra "Lois" Reeves, American singer (Martha & the Vandellas)
- 1949 - Scott Turow, American writer
- 1950 - David Cassidy, American singer and actor
- 1950 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
- 1952 - Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist (d. 2004)
- 1954 - Pat Travers, Canadian musician
- 1956 - Andy Garcia, Cuban-born actor
- 1956 - Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer, pianist, and actor
- 1957 - Vince Gill, American musician
- 1961 - Lisa Gerrard, Australian singer and film composer
- 1962 - Art Alexakis, American musician (Everclear)
- 1964 - Amy Ray, American musician (Indigo Girls)
- 1970 - Nick Hexum, American musician (311)
- 1971 - Nicholas Brendon, actor
- 1971 - Shannen Doherty, American actress
- 1978 - Guy Berryman, British musician (Coldplay)
- 1978 - Riley Smith, American actor
- 1979 - Claire Danes, American actress
- 1979 - Mateja Kežman, Serbian footballer
- 1982 - Deen, Bosnian singer
- 1985 - Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)

Deaths

65 to 1899


- 65 - Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist
- 238 - Gordian I, Roman Emperor (suicide)
- 238 - Gordian II, heir to the Roman Empire (killed in battle)
- 1443 - Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1550 - Claude, Duke of Guise, French soldier (b. 1496)
- 1555 - Juana of Castile, queen of Philip I of Castile (b. 1479)
- 1687 - Ambrose Dixon, Virginia Colony pioneer
- 1704 - Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and writer (b. 1627)
- 1748 - William Kent, English architect
- 1782 - Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
- 1788 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (b. 1719)
- 1795 - Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710)
- 1814 - Charles Burney, English music historian (b. 1726)
- 1850 - Adoniram Judson, American Baptist missionary (b. 1788)

1900 to 1999


- 1912 - Clara Barton, American nurse and Red Cross advocate (b. 1821)
- 1938 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
- 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1882)
- 1962 - Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, Indian politician and engineer (b. 1861)
- 1971 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1975 - Josephine Baker, American dancer (b. 1906)
- 1980 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards and snooker player (b. 1895)
- 1980 - William R. Tolbert, Jr., President of Liberia (b. 1913)
- 1981 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
- 1986 - Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (b. 1897)
- 1988 - Alan Paton, South African novelist (b. 1903)
- 1989 - Gerald Flood, British actor (b. 1927)
- 1989 - Abbie Hoffman, American radical leader (b. 1936)
- 1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, American boxer (b. 1921)
- 1997 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- 1999 - Boxcar Willie, American singer (b. 1931)

2000 onwards


- 2003 - Cecil H. Green, American manufacturer (b. 1900)

Holidays and observances


- The Roman holiday of Cerealia begins.
- Yuri's Night, an international celebration of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin.
- Easter, 1998

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/12 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/12 Today in History: April 12] ---- From "Lines in Praise of a Date Made Praiseworthy Solely by Something Very Nice That Happened to It", by Ogden Nash: :"As through the calendar I delve :I pause to rejoice in April twelve. :Yea, be I in sickness or be I in health :My favorite date is April twealth. :..." ---- April 11 - April 13 - March 12 - May 12 -- listing of all days ko:4월 12일 ms:12 April ja:4月12日 simple:April 12 th:12 เมษายน

565

Events
- January 22 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.
- November 14 - Justin II succeeds Justinian I as Byzantine Emperor
- Agathias begins to write a history beginning where Procopius finished his work.
- Northern Qi Hou Zhu succeeds Northern Qi Wu Cheng Di as ruler of the Chinese Northern Qi Dynasty
- Alboin succeeds his father Audoin as king of the Lombards
- Saint Columba allegedly saves the life of a Pict who was being attacked by a monster in the River Ness. The alleged event has been suggested as the earliest known sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
- Columba begins preaching in the Orkney Islands.
- The Uighurs are taken over by the Gokturks. Births Deaths
- November 13/ 14 - Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor
- Belisarius, Byzantine general
- Procopius of Caesarea, historian
- Audoin, king of the Lombards Category:565 als:565 ko:565년

533

Events


- February 1 - John becomes Pope, succeeding Pope Boniface II, who had died in 532.
- Belisarius, a general in the service of Justinian I, lands in North Africa and attacks the Vandals.
- September 13 - Battle of Ad Decimium: Belisarius defeats the Vandals under Gelimer. Gelimer, forced to flee, leaves Carthage unprotected.
- December - Battle of Ticameron: Belisarius defeats a new Vandal force under Gelimer and Tzazo. Tzazo is killed in an all-cavalry fight, and Gelimer flees to the mountains of Numidia.
- December 16 - The Digesta or Pandectae, a collection of jurist writings and other sources, is completed (see Corpus Juris Civilis).
- Theodebert I becomes king of Austrasia.

Births

Deaths


- January 13 - Saint Remigius, bishop of Reims, baptiser of Clovis I
- Theuderic I of Austrasia (or 534) Category:533 ko:533년

Constantinople

:This article details the history of Constantinople before the Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see İstanbul. İstanbul Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις) was the original and best known name of the modern city of İstanbul in Turkey in its role over more than a millennium as capital, first of the Eastern Roman Empire, subsequently of the Byzantine Empire. The last imperial designation reveals the city's even more ancient Greek name: Byzantium. Constantinople was located strategically between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe met Asia, and was highly significant as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Names

The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, AD 330, naming the city Nova Roma (New Rome). That particular name, however, enjoyed little common use, and it was as the 'City of Constantine' (Constantinopolis) that it lived through the subsequent centuries. A historical Slavic name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek, presumably of Βασιλεως Πόλις, "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words tsar for "Caesar" and grad for "city", it stood for "the City of the Emperor [Caesar]". As fashions have changed the term has faded, and the word Tsargrad is now an archaic term in Russian, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul, adopting a usage in Greek "eis tin Poli" (to or at the City). But they still used "Konstantiniyye" ("Constantine's City", or Constantinople) as the official name. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople was officially renamed İstanbul by the Republic of Turkey in 1930.

Byzantium

Constantine's foundation of New Rome on this site reflected its strategic and commercial importance from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, whilst also being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. No doubt for these reasons, a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, when in 667 BC the legendary Byzas established it with a group of citizens from the town of Megara. This city was named Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation

Byzantium, ca. 1000)]] Constantine had altogether more ambitious plans. Having restored the unity of the empire, now overseeing the progress of major governmental reforms and sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, Constantine was well aware that Rome had become an unsatisfactory capital for several reasons. Located in central Italy, Rome lay too far from the eastern imperial frontiers, and hence also from the legions and the Imperial courts.Moreover, Rome offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians; it also suffered regularly from flooding and from malaria. It seemed impossible to many that the capital could be moved. Nevertheless, Constantine identified the site of Byzantium as the correct place: a city where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the empire. Constantine laid out the expanded city, dividing it into 14 regions, and ornamenting it with great public works worthy of a great imperial city. Yet initially Constantinople did not have all the dignities of Rome, possessing a proconsul, rather than a prefect of the city. Furthermore, it had no praetors, tribunes or quaestors. Although Constantinople did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. Nor did it have the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food-supply, the police, the statues, the temples, the sewers, the aqueducts and other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and removed to the new city. By the same token, however, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.

Public buildings

332 Constantinople was a Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian made the temples of Byzantium into ruins, and erected the splendid Church of the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek), as the centrepiece of his Christian capital. He oversaw also the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and that of St Irene. Constantine laid out anew the square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augusteum in honour of his mother, Helena. Sancta Sophia lay on the north side of the Augusteum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Located immediately nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus (both originally built in the time of Severus). At the entrance at the western end of the Augusteum was the Milestone, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empire. From the Augusteum a great street, the Mese, led, lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second senate-house, then on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Sixth Hill and through to the Golden Gate on the Propontis. The Mese would be seven Roman miles long to the Golden Gate of the Walls of Theodosius. Constantine erected a high column in the centre of the Forum, on the Second Hill, with a statue of himself at the top, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking towards the rising sun.

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

Walls of Theodosius, on a contemporary silver plate (Royal Academy of History, Madrid)]] The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors, up to Zeno and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the church of John the Baptist to house a relic of the saint, put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coachhouse for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine. Gradually the importance of the city increased. Following the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 376, when the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Goths within a few days' march of the city, Constantinople looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413-414 the 60-foot tall walls which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University at the Capitolium near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425. In the 5th century, when the barbarians overran the Western Empire, its emperors retreated to Ravenna before it collapsed altogether. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the greatest city of the Empire, and the greatest in the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia flowed into Constantinople.

The City under Justinian

The emperor Justinian (527-565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander, Belisarius, anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor; and also where they openly criticised the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue. The entire late Roman and early Byzantine period was one where Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens, and in the form of a major rebellion in the capital of 532 AD, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved). "Nika" riots Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed the basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with the incomparable St Sophia, the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets (St Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the city, and is now a museum). The dedication took place on Christmas Day of 537 AD in the presence of the Emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!" Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles, built by Constantine, with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equally-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the emperors from Constantine himself until the eleventh century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II the Conqueror.

The City after Justinian

Justinian was succeeded in turn by Justin II, Tiberius II and Maurice, able emperors who had to deal with a deteriorating military situation, especially on the eastern frontier. Subsequently there was a period of near-anarchy, which was exploited by the enemies of the Empire. After the Avars came to threaten Constantinople from the west and simultaneously the Persians from the East, Heraclius, the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the situation so dire that at first he contemplated moving the imperial capital to Carthage, but with military genius he succeeded in expelling the invaders. No sooner had he carried war into their own territories, however, and achieved an advantageous peace with Persia, than he was faced with the Arab expansion. Constantinople was besieged twice by the Arabs, once in a long blockade between 674 and 678, and once again in 717.

Importance of the City in its prime

Constantinople was historically important for a number of reasons. 717 Byzantium, later Constantinople, was one of the larger and richer urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenic period and later during the Roman Empire, mostly due to its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean and the Black Sea. During the Fourth Century AD the Emperor Constantine relocated his eastern capital to Byzantium, hence the name Constantinople (Constantine's City), in an attempt to reinvigorate the Empire. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek speaking empire, short several interregnums, for over a thousand years. As the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (now commonly known as the Byzantine Empire), the Greeks called Constantinople simply "the City", while throughout Europe it was known as the "Queen of Cities." In its heyday, roughly corresponding to what is now known as the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, particularly the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom. A Russian 14th-century traveller, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sofia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it". The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in its extensive copying throughout Europe, particular examples include St. Mark's in Venice, the basilica of Ravenna and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its city walls (the Theodosian Walls) and urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping a memory alive of the skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. The city, also provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire against the invasions of the 5th century, for Europe against the Arabs, and for European Christendom against Islam. Constantine assured the position of the Bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople as pre-eminent in the Eastern Empire. This action placed Constantinople at the religious heart of Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Constantinople is still considered first among equals in the Orthodox Church along with the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the later Slavic Patriarchs. This position is largely ceremonial but still carries emotional weight.

The Isaurians

In the eighth and ninth centuries the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act which was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Constantine V convoked a church council in 754 which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over. Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The Comneni and Palaeologi

787, 1840]] Following the catastrophic defeat in 1071 of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in Armenia, his successor Michael VII pleaded for assistance from the West. In due course this was to lead to the First Crusade, which assembled at Constantinople in 1096 in the reign of Alexius I Comnenus, and moved on towards Jerusalem. Much of this is documented by the writer and historian Anna Comnena in her work The Alexiad. The Crusades were, however, to lead in time to the disastrous capture and sack of Constantinople by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade on April 12 1204. For the subsequent half-century or more, Constantinople remained the centre of the Roman Catholic crusader state, set up after the city's capture under Baldwin IX, and which became known as the Latin Kingdom. During this time, the Byzantine emperors made their capital at nearby Nicaea, which acted as the capital of the temporary, short-lived Empire of Nicaea and a refuge for refugees from the sacked city of Constantinople. From this base, Constantinople was eventually recaptured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by Byzantine forces under Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. The Palaeologi founded a beautiful new imperial palace at Blachernae in the north-west of the city, the Great Palace subsequently falling into disuse.

The Ottomans

Blachernae (painted 1499)]] Constantinople and the Empire finally fell to the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453, during the reign of Constantine XI Paleologus (see Fall of Constantinople). Although the Turks overthrew the Byzantines, Fatih Sultan Mehmed the Second (the Ottaman Sultan at the time) let Orthodox Patriarchy to continue its affairs, having stated that they did not want to join the Vatican.

Constantinople in popular culture


- Constantinople appears as a dusty faded capital, shorn of its glories, in William Butler Yeats' 1926 poem Sailing to Byzantium.
- Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song by The Four Lads later covered by They Might Be Giants entitled Istanbul (Not Constantinople) [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/istanbul-not-constantinople.html]. "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening track of The Residents' EP Duck Stab!, released in 1978.
- Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of "A Flame in Byzantium" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro released in 1987.

Further reading


- Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, Pimlico, 2005. ISBN 1844130800
- Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0521398320
- Philip Mansell, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire

Notes


- Constantinople is derived from the Greek Κωνσταντινούπολη. Other names for the city:
  - Turkish name: İstanbul.
  - Modern Greek name: Κωνσταντινούπολη, older name: Κωνσταντινούπολις (Konstantinoupolis; see also List of traditional Greek place names)
  - Roman name: Constantinopolis;
  - Latin name: Constantinopolis, Nova Roma
  - Arabic name: قسطنطينية (Kostantiniyya)
  - Armenian name: Konstaninopolis / Gonstantinobolis
  - Swedish viking name: Miklagård
  - Ottoman Turkish name: Konstantiniyye.
  - Slavonic name: Tsargrad (Царьград).
  - Stamboul (used by British and other diplomatic corps in "The City")
  - The Sublime Porte - the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, so-called for its gate-location within the Topkapi and often used as a synonym for "Constantinople" in diplomatic notes (the same way "Whitehall" would be used in the case of the British Foreign Office, or "No. 10 Downing" to refer to the PMO)
- Source for quote: Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, ed T Preger I 105 (see A A Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire, 1952, vol I p 188).

See also


- İstanbul
- Patriarch of Constantinople
- Golden Horn
- Hagia Sophia
- Hippodrome of Constantinople
- University of Constantinople
- the Bosporus

External links


- [http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html Info on the name change] from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
- [http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster Welcome to Constantinople], documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3
- .html#1 Constantinople], from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm History of Constantinople] from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
- [http://www.byzantium1200.com/ Byzantium 1200], A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, Turkey as of year 1200 AD. Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Cities along the Silk Road Category:Holy cities Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Roman sites in Turkey Category:Roman colonies ko:콘스탄티노폴리스 ja:コンスタンティノポリス

Eutychius

Eutychius (d. 752) was the last Exarch of Ravenna (c.727-752). The entire exarchate had risen in revolt in response to imposition of iconoclasm in 727; the Lombards, the papacy, and the Italian cities all moved to eliminate Byzantine authority. Emperor Leo III sent Eutychius to take control of the situation. Eutychius arrived in Naples, where he ordered an assassination attempt on Pope Gregory II's life. When the attempt failed, Eutychius turned his attention to the Lombards. His attempts to bribe them eventually gained results; the Lombard King Liutprand was promised assistance in subjecting the duchies of Benevento and Spoleto to his authority, in exchange for the king's help in removing the pope. Gregory, however, met with Liutprand, and convinced him to abandon the effort; Eutychius was still given troops to help put down the rebellions within the exarchate. Conflict with the Lombards resulted in disaster in 737, when the city of Ravenna was seized by Liutprand. Further warfare erupted in 739. Pope Gregory III had supported the dukes of Benevento and Spoleto against Liutprand, causing the latter to invade central Italy. The exarchate, as well as the Duchy of Rome, was ravaged. In 740 Eutychius and Gregory appealed to Venice to liberate Ravenna, which they succeeded in doing. Nevertheless, it was clear the Byzantine authority in Italy was falling apart, an inevitability that caused the pope to appeal to Charles Martel of the Franks that same year. Shortly after the ascension of Pope Zacharias in 741, Liutprand again planned to capture Ravenna. Zacharias, however, marched north; he met Eutychius near Rimini, and then entered Ravenna to the joy of the local citizenry. Continuing on to the Lombard capital of Pavia, Zacharias convinced Liutprand to abort the expedition, and to restore some of the territory he had captured. Several years later, however, the new Lombard king Aistulf captured Ravenna in 751, and around this time Eutychius was killed fighting against the Lombards. His death put an end to the Exarchate of Ravenna; the papacy, however, would claim the former imperial territory, and assisted the help of the Franks in recovering it. Category:752 deaths Category:Exarchs of Ravenna

Canon law

In Western culture, canon law is the law of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. The Eastern Orthodox concept of canon law is similar to but not identical to the more legislative and juridical model of the West. In both traditions, a canon is a rule adopted by a council (From Greek kanon / κανών, for rule, standard, or measure); these canons formed the foundation of canon law. In the official Anglican Church of England, the ecclesiastical courts that formerly decided many matters such as disputes relating to marriage, divorce, wills, and defamation, still have jurisdiction of certain church-related matters (e.g., discipline of clergy, alteration of church property, and issues related to churchyards). Their separate status dates back to the 12th century when the Normans split them off from the mixed secular/religious county and local courts used by the Saxons. In contrast to the other courts of England the law used in ecclesiastical matters is at least partially a civil law system, not common law, although heavily governed by parliamentary statutes. Since the Reformation, ecclesiastical courts in England have been royal courts. The teaching of canon law at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge was abrogated by Henry VIII; thereafter practitioners in the ecclesiastical courts were trained in civil law, receiving a Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree from Oxford, or an LL.D. from Cambridge. Such lawyers (called "doctors" and "civilians") were centered at "Doctors Commons," a few blocks south of St Paul's Cathedral in London, where they monopolized probate, matrimonial, and admiralty cases until their jurisdiction was removed to the common law courts in the mid-19th century. (Admiralty law was also based on civil law instead of common law, thus was handled by the civilians too.) Other churches in the Anglican Communion around the world (e.g., the Episcopal Church in the United States, and the Anglican Church of Canada) still function under their own private systems of canon law. In the Roman Catholic church, the canons of the councils were supplemented with decretals of the Popes, which were gathered together into collections such as the Liber Extra (1234), the Liber Sextus (1298) and the Clementines (1317). In the 20th century, the Roman Catholic Church began attempting to codify canon law, which two millennia of development had become a complex and difficult system of interpretation and cross-referencing. The first code of canon law was promulgated in 1917 and took force in 1918. A revised code, the Codex Iuris Canonici (Code of Canon Law, CIC) was promulgated in January 1983 and took effect in November 1983. Canon law within the Catholic Church is a fully developed legal system, with all the familiar trappings of courts (including lawyers); the highest degree of education in canon law is the J.C.D. (Juris Canonici Doctor, Doctor of Canon Law). The Eastern Catholic Churches have a separate code of canon law. The first attempt to codify Eastern law under the name Codex Iuris Canonici Orientalis (Code of Eastern Canon Law) was partially completed when Pope Pius XII promulgated portions of the canons in 1948. However, when the project neared completion in 1959, Pope John XXIII suspended work as the expected conciliar reforms would affect the code. The Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, CCEO) was promulgated in November 1990. The majority of canons correspond closely to the Roman code, but incorporates certain differences in the hierarchy, administration and other areas. The Orthodox Christian tradition is generally much less legalistic, and treats many of the canons more as guidelines than as absolute laws, adjusting them to cultural and other local circumstances. Some Orthodox canon scholars point out that, had the Ecumenical Councils (which deliberated in Greek) meant for the canons to be used as laws, they would have called them nomoi/νομοι (laws) rather than kanones/κανονες (standards). Greek-speaking Orthodox have collected canons and commentary upon them in a work known as the Pedalion/Πεδαλιον (rudder--so called because it is meant to "steer" the Church). However, this is not a codification, but simply a compilation of one tradition of interpretation of the canons.

See also


- Probatio diabolica
- Gratian (jurist)
- Decretum Gratiani

External links


- [http://www.intratext.com/X/ENG0017.htm "Code of Canon Law"] (Latin Church, Roman Catholic)
- [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_INDEX.HTM "Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches"] (Eastern Catholic Churches)
- [http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM "Roman Catholic 1983 Code of Canon Law," Hosted by the Vatican]
- [http://canonlaw.anglican.org/ "Resources for Anglican Canon Law"]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09056a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: Canon Law] Category:Canon law ko:교회법

Council of Nicaea

Council of Nicaea can refer to:
- First Council of Nicaea in AD 325
- Second Council of Nicaea in AD 787

Council of Ancyra

An important ecclesiastical synod was held at Ancyra, the seat of the Roman administration for the province of Galatia, in 314. The season was soon after Easter; the year may be safely deduced from the fact that the first nine canons are intended to repair havoc wreaked in the church by persecution, which ceased after the overthrow of Maximinus in 313. The tenth canon tolerates the marriages of deacons who previous to ordination had reserved the right to take a wife; the thirteenth forbids chorepiscopi to ordain presbyters or deacons; the eighteenth safeguards the right of the people in objecting to the appointment of a bishop whom they do not wish. Category:Ancient Roman Christianity Category:314

Council of Ephesus

The Council of Ephesus was held in Ephesus, Asia Minor in 431 under Emperor Theodosius II, grandson of Theodosius the Great. Approximately 200 Bishops were present. The proceedings were conducted in a heated atmosphere of confrontation and recriminations. It was the Third Ecumenical Council. It was chiefly concerned with Nestorianism. Nestorianism emphasized the human nature of Jesus at the expense of the divine. The Council denounced Patriarch Nestorius' teaching as erroneous. Nestorius taught that the Virgin Mary gave birth to a man, Jesus Christ, not God, the "Logos" ("The Word", Son of God). The Logos only dwelled in Christ, as in a Temple (Christ, therefore, was only Theophoros: The "Bearer of God".) Consequently, Virgin Mary should be called "Christotokos," Mother of Christ and not "Theotokos, "Mother of God." Hence, the name, "Christological controversies". The Council decreed that Jesus was one person, not two separate "people": complete God and complete man, with a rational soul and body. The Virgin Mary is "Theotokos" because she gave birth not to man but to God as a man. The union of the two natures of Christ took place in such a fashion that one did not disturb the other. The Council also declared the text of the Nicene Creed decreed at the First and Second Ecumenical Councils to be complete and forbade any additional change (addition or deletion) to it. In addition, it condemned Pelagianism.

See also

Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church

External links


- [http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-14/4Ephesus/Canons.htm Eight canons promulgated by the Council of Ephesus]
- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/ephesus.html Medieval Sourcebook: Documents and letters concerning the Council of Ephesus]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3810.htm Extracts from the Acts of the council]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05491a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia:] Ephesus, Council of; report of proceeding from the Catholic POV
- [http://www.bible.org/docs/soapbox/st-essay/phantomheresy.htm Michael J. Svigel, "The Phantom Heresy:Did the Council of Ephesus (431) Condemn Chiliasm?"] Ephesus Category:Ancient Roman Christianity Category:Assyrian Church of the East Category:431 Category:House of Theodosius ja:エフェソス公会議 nb:Konsilet i Efesos

Council of Constantinople

See:
- First Council of Constantinople (second ecumenical council); or
- Fifth Ecumenical Council (Second Council of Constantinople).

Photius

Photius (b. Constantinople ca. 820 - d. Bordi (Armenia), February 6, 891) is widely regarded as the greatest patriarch of Constantinople (858-861 and 878-886) since the times of John Chrysostom. He was later recognized as a Saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. ("Photius" is a westernized spelling, especially in its use of the letter "u", resulting from adaptation of the name to the Latin language. In Greek, the name is Φωτιoς.)

Life

Little is known of his origin or family. His Byzantine biographers reported that Emperor