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Our Anglican Tradition as a Parish in the Episcopal Church
A 2025 Series Provided Weekly by Father Nik Forti
Part 2—Christianity’s Arrival in the British Isles
Part 3—The First Bishop of Albion
Part 4—A First Century Church in Roman Britannia
Part 5—Lucius, King of the Britons,Becomes Christian
Part 6—Paganism in Roman Britannia
Part 7—House Churches in Roman Britannia
Part 8—Christians of Second Century Roman Britannia
Part 9—Persecution of Christians in Roman Britannia
Part 10—Martyrs of Roman Britannia
Part 11—An Ancient Church Building in Roman Britannia
Part 12—British Christianity at the end of the Great Persecution
Part 13—Bishops of Britannia attend the Synod of Arle
Part 14—The Lead Up to the Synod of Arles
Part 15—The British Bishops Oppose Donatism
Part 16—The Church in Britannia Flourishes Under the Pax Romana
Part 17—A Church Controversy Brewing Far From Britannia
Part 18—The Source of Trinitarian Language
Jan. 18, 2025
Part 1—Anglicanism
The words “Anglican” and “Anglicanism” have become so commonplace we can easily overlook their fairly recent provenance. They don’t stretch back to the ancient Celtic Church of the Britons of Roman Britannia. Nor do they even go back as far as the English Reformation of the 16th century. It is true that the Latin phrase “Ecclesia Anglicana” had been used occasionally for the Church in England beginning in the High Medieval period. However, the English terms, “Anglican” and “Anglicanism” really only came into common use in the 19th and 20th centuries as the Church of England became more intentional in her relationships with the churches she had planted in other parts of the world.
“Anglican” and “Anglicanism” have generally come to refer to the Christian faith and ecclesiastical polity, history, and traditions that took root in the British Isles, evolving over centuries from the Church in England to the Church of England, and eventually growing into a global communion of churches all over the world. The Episcopal Church is one such Anglican Church because we emerged from the Church of England in the British colonies in America, and we remain in communion with the Church of England. So, as Episcopalians and Anglicans, our particular Christian heritage and ecclesial genealogy must be traced back to the arrival of Christianity in the British Isles.
Jan. 25, 2025
Part 2—Christianity’s Arrival in the British Isles
After his Resurrection and before his Ascension, Jesus sent his disciples out “to make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Scripture records some of the stories of that first generation of the Church taking the Gospel into the wider world. Tradition adds still more tales. And then legends have arisen where Scripture and Tradition are silent. One such legend suggests that Joseph of Arimathea was the first to bring the Christian faith to the British Isles.
According to Scripture, Joseph was a wealthy member of the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, and he was also a disciple of Jesus (Matthew 27:57; Luke 23:50-51). When Jesus was crucified, Joseph used his influence to acquire Christ’s body and offered his own tomb for the burial (Mark 15:43).
That’s all Scripture has to say about Joseph; however, legend picks up his story after Jesus’ resurrection.
Inspired by the Great Commission, so the legend goes, Joseph of Arimathea used his wealth to finance a missionary journey up to the northern edges of the Roman Empire—across the sea to Cornwall and then to Glastonbury, Somerset to proclaim the gospel and plant a church. It’s said that when Joseph reached his destination and looked down upon Glastonbury from Wearyall Hill, his walking staff—made from Judean hawthorn—took root in the soil upon which he stood and blossomed. Even today, descendants of that ancient hawthorn tree survive in Glastonbury and bloom twice a year—around Easter and, curiously, during Christmastide.
<Feb. 1, 2025
strong>Part 3—The First Bishop of Albion
In addition to the legend of Joseph of Arimathea establishing a church in Glastonbury, tradition tells of yet another first-century missionary bringing the Christian faith to Roman Britannia. His name was Aristobulus. A document written in the 4th century names him as one of the Seventy Disciples of Jesus in Galilee mentioned in the Gospel according to Luke (10:1). The Eastern Orthodox hold that Aristobulus was the brother of St Paul’s missionary companion, Barnabas. And he has often been identified with the Aristobulus mentioned by Paul in his Epistle the Romans (16:10).
Paul wrote that letter to the Church in Rome as he was preparing to visit them for the first time on his way to Spain. However, Paul never seems to have made it to Spain. He did get to Rome, as he had planned, but in chains, which he hadn’t planned. Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem and transported under guard to the capital of the Empire. There he probably remained under house arrest until his martyrdom during the Emperor Nero’s persecution of the Christians.
Paul’s Epistle tells us that the Christians in Rome knew of Aristobulus and that members of his household were among them. It also reminds us that Christians were taking the Gospel to the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire and beyond. Presumably, Aristobulus was one of these apostolic missionaries, bringing the faith to the British Isles—then known as Albion—as its first bishop. Tradition preserves no details about his missionary and pastoral work among the Britons and contains conflicting accounts of his death. Either Aristobulus was martyred, perhaps in the country we now call Wales, or he died peacefully and was laid to rest in Glastonbury.
Feb. 9, 2025
Part 4—A First Century Church in Roman Britannia
If the legend of Joseph of Arimathea journeying to Glastonbury and the tradition of Aristobulus becoming the first Bishop of Albion contain historical truth, then Christianity came to the British Isles in the apostolic age of the first century. This would mean there was a Church in Roman Britannia with as ancient a provenance as the Churches in Alexandria, Rome, and some of those mentioned in the New Testament. And there are reasons not to discount these legends and traditions too hastily.
At the beginning of the third century (around AD 200), the North African theologian, Tertullian mentioned that the Britons even beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire had faith in Christ. Not long after, the great theologian and teacher at the Catechetical School in Alexandria, Origen testified to the same. Based on these two writings, we know there was a Church in the British Isles by at least the second century. We also know that by the latter half of the first century the gospel was being proclaimed and churches were being established in cities all over the Empire. Why not Roman Britannia as well?
Julius Caesar first laid eyes on the white cliffs of Dover as he sailed with two legions to Albion fifty-five years Before Christ. However, it was under Emperor Claudius in AD 43 that the Romans truly invaded the island of Britain and established the southern half as an imperial province. The Romans had just put down the rebellion of the Briton warrior chieftain, Boudica, “Queen” of the Iceni tribe as Saint Paul was arriving in Rome in chains. Within a few short years, the Emperor Nero would begin the first major persecution of the Christians in Rome. While around the same time, the Empire faced the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt, a war that led to the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. It isn’t difficult to imagine Joseph of Arimathea or Aristobulus joining other Christians fleeing these horrors and seeking new homes where they could live and spread the Faith in the more remote frontiers of the Empire, like Britannia.
Feb.16, 2025
Part 5—Lucius, King of the Britons, Becomes Christian
In his 8th century Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) expanded on the brief witness to Christianity in 2nd century Roman Britannia found in the writings of Tertullian (c. 155-c. 220) and Origen (c. 185-c. 253). According to Bede, a certain Lucius, whom he calls “king of the Britons,” became interested in the Christian Faith. Desiring to be properly converted from his paganism, Lucius sent a message to the Bishop of Rome, Pope Eleutherius around AD 179.
The fact that King Lucius was aware of Christianity in the mid-second century supports the legends and traditions of the gospel being proclaimed in the British Isles very early. However, Lucius’ appeal to the Bishop of Rome raises an important question. If Christianity had already taken root in Roman Britannia by the end of the first century, then why did Lucius entreat the Bishop of Rome to assist his conversion? Why didn’t he simply avail himself of the Celtic and Roman Christians of Britannia to baptize and initiate him into the Church?
There are several potential reasons Lucius turned to the Bishop of Rome to oversee his conversion—none of which are mutually exclusive. First, the Christian communities of Roman Britannia may have been small and sporadically spread throughout the province, making them difficult to find. Second, Christian churches were still illegal in the 2nd century and faced occasional local persecution throughout the Empire, which might have made Christians wary of a political leader seeking them out. Third, as a major chieftain of the Britons and possible “client king” for the Romans, Lucius may have felt that honor demanded the pedigree of his baptism be through the most important Christian leader nearest to him—namely, the Bishop of Rome. Finally, by the 2nd century, the Church was developing an extended period of catechesis—instruction in the faith and practice of Christianity—before baptism. Lucius may have desired the best catechesis he could receive and assumed that this was more likely to come from the Christian leadership in the capital of the Empire than from the local Christian leadership in the Empire’s rural frontier.
Feb. 23, 2025
Part 6—Paganism in Roman Britannia
About four hundred years after the Venerable Bede (c. 673–735) provided a written record of Lucius, the 2nd century “king of the Britons” who converted to Christianity, two other medieval historians added to the story. Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155 ) and William of Malmesbury (c. 1095–c. 1143) name the two missionaries sent by the Bishop of Rome at Lucius’ request as Faganus/Phagan and Duvianus/Deruvian. Presumably, these two clergymen were sent as bishops. But what did they find in Roman Britannia when they arrived?
The majority of the people in the province would have been pagan. The Romans and Romanized Britons would have worshiped the gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon—Apollo, Diana, Jupiter, Mars, Minerva, Mercury, Silvanus, Vesta, etc.—as well as the household gods, such as the Lares and Penates, and the lesser deities known as daemons and genii. The Roman soldiers brought their worship of the Persian god, Mithras with them. And other mystery cults, such as the one dedicated to the Egyptian goddess, Isis found their way up to Britannia. But all these religious expressions would have already been well known to the two missionaries from Rome.
Unfamiliar to these clergymen from the capital of the Empire would have been the Celtic paganism of the Britons who resisted or ignored Romanization. Since the Celtic languages were oral only, not written, the Celtic pantheon is mostly unknown. Some names of Celtic gods have been recorded, but there’s precious little preserved beyond those names. One Celtic deity worshiped by the Britons was a goddess of springs, founts, and wells called Coventina. Bodies of water—especially places where water and land meet and merge—seemed to be held as sacred by the Britons. At these sites, shrines and temples were constructed where the Celtic Britons, like the Romans, sacrificed animals, gave gifts of food and money, and made supplications to their gods. Traditionally, the priestly practice of sacrifice among the Britons would have been officiated by elders known as Druids; however, the Romans had maintained a campaign of persecution against these priestly leaders since establishing their province in the British Isles. So, by the 2nd century AD, the sacrifices of the Britons to their Celtic gods would have probably been personal and performed by the suppliants, themselves.
March 2, 2025
Part 7—House Churches in Roman Britannia
Paganism may have dominated 2nd century Roman Britannia; however, as we’ve seen, there’s good reason to believe Christianity had already begun to take root in the province. Unfortunately, there are no known records describing the Church there in the 1st or 2nd century. To reconstruct a glimpse of the Church as it was encountered by the two clergymen sent by Pope Eleutherius at the request of Lucius, “king of the Britons,” we must look to descriptions of the early Church elsewhere.
Christianity began as a movement within Judaism and the Church remained mostly Jewish through the 1st century. So, as it spread throughout the Roman Empire, the earliest churches tended to be in cities with communities of diaspora Jews with a synagogue. A small group of the Jews and some gentile “God-fearers” would attend the Shabbat worship in the synagogue on Saturday and then gather again Saturday night in someone’s home for Christian worship, centered around the Eucharistic meal. However, there’s no textual or archaeological evidence of a synagogue in the British Isles at that time, and by the 2nd century, churches had already begun to be largely gentile communities independent of synagogues.
A book of Christian catechism and prayers called the Didache, which was written around the same time as much of the New Testament, describes the church as a community whose life together was gathered around Baptism and the Eucharistic meal, which was accompanied by prayers, preaching, and teaching. In AD 112, Pliny the Younger, a pagan Roman governor in what is now Turkey, wrote to the Emperor that the Christians “gather before dawn on a set day, sing a hymn antiphonally to Christ as if he were a god, and bind themselves by a sacred promise not to do anything bad but to never commit theft, fraud, or adultery, and to never break trust or refuse to forgive debts. Then, after dispersing, they gather again for a harmless and common meal.” Similarly, around AD 155, the Christian Philosopher, Justin Martyr described the local church gathering all the Christians “in the city and countryside” together each Sunday to read from “the books of the prophets” and the Gospels, hear a sermon, pray, and then celebrate the Eucharist with bread and wine. These sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, and this liturgy of worship were surely similar in the small house churches of Roman Britannia, as well.
March 9, 2025
Part 8—Christians of Second Century Roman Britannia
Apart from joining them for worship, is there any way that the missionaries sent from Rome by Pope Eleutherius at the behest of King Lucius would have recognized the Christians already living in Roman Britannia? Would they have been noticeably distinctive or distinguishable from their pagan countrymen? It seems that the most likely answer to these questions is, no—probably not.
In the 2nd century, Christianity was still considered an illegal superstition by the Roman Empire. Moreover, the Empire was often wary of nearly all organized or institutionalized social groups—especially, clandestine groups like churches. So, Christians would have wanted to remain somewhat inconspicuous, at least until they knew they could trust the person with whom they were interacting.
An anonymous, 2nd century Christian text known as the Epistle to Diognetus says that “Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom” (5.1). They live wherever they find themselves to be, it goes on to say, “and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life” (5.4). For, “they live in their own countries but only as resident aliens. They participate in everything as citizens and yet endure everything as immigrants. A Christian’s homeland is as a foreign country to them, and every foreign country is as much their homeland as where they were born” (5.5). But the Epistle of Diognetus does suggest one way Christians might be recognized by the discerning eye—namely, their virtue. A Christian may be recognized by their commitment to their spouse and family; by their eschewal of wealth and violence; and by their care for children, the elderly, the sick, and the infirm.
March 16, 2025
Part 9—Persecution of Christians in Roman Britannia
That anonymous, 2nd century text, the Epistle to Diognetus claimed that since Christians live in their respective countries as resident aliens, whose true “citizenship is in heaven” (5.9, quoting Phil 3:20), “they participate in everything as citizens, but endure everything as immigrants” (5.5). Although distinguishable only by their virtue and that “they love everyone;” nevertheless, “they are persecuted by everyone” (5.11). Indeed, the text suggests that those who persecuted Christians didn’t even understand and couldn’t explain why they did it (5.17). However, Pliny the Younger’s Letter to the Emperor Trajan (AD 112) and other contemporary sources do provide reasons for Roman persecution of Christians.
The Imperial government was generally wary of any organized groups that gathered without the sanction of the Empire for fear that they may become seedbeds for organized political opposition, subversion, or even rebellion. The churches were just such illicit, organized groups. Moreover, the name that Christians used for their gatherings (ekklesia, in Greek), which we now translate as “church,” had political connotations, as it was also the world used for the gathering of the voting citizens of a city-state. And when these ekklesiai, or churches would meet, the Christians would pledge their loyalty as disciples to a man executed under Roman law for treason by the Roman prefect or governor of the Judean province of the Empire. Indeed, the Christians would gather to worship this criminal “as a god,” even as they refused their civic duty to make sacrifices at pagan shrines to the emperor and the patronal gods of their city.
For all these reasons, the Roman Empire remained suspicious of and occasionally hostile toward Christians. Still, most of the persecutions within the Empire in the first two centuries Anno Domini were sporadic and local. If a city faced a natural disaster or a plague or a famine, then the Christians may become the scapegoats, taking on the blame because they refused to appease the gods believed to oversee the wellbeing of the city. However, by the 3rd century, much larger persecutions—even Empire-wide persecution—began to take place. There are no specific records of a local persecution of Christians in Roman Britannia in the 1st and 2nd centuries. But in the 3rd century, persecution came to the British Isles, producing the first martyrs of Britain: St Alban, St Julius, and St Aaron.
March 23, 2015
Part 10—Martyrs of Roman Britannia
With the possible exception of a few years during the reign of the Emperor Domition at the end of the 1st century, persecutions of Christians within the Roman Empire remained occasional and local up through the 2nd century. During the 3rd century, the empire entered a period of social, economic, and (especially) political tumult—witnessing the rise and fall of a dizzying number of emperors whose short reigns tended to end in death on the battlefield or assassination. One of these, Trajanus Decius was acclaimed emperor by his troops and accepted as such by the Senate in AD 249. Shortly thereafter he passed a law requiring all citizens and subjects of the empire to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods for their blessing upon him. When Christians resisted the edict, some were imprisoned and others were executed, including the Bishop of Rome, Pope Fabian. However, the persecution was short-lived, ending with the death of Decius and his son in the Battle of Abritus against the Goths and Scythians in 251.
Persecution flared up again in AD 257 during the reign of Valerian, who had become emperor four years prior. Emperor Valerian directly targeted Christians, seeking to purge them from positions within the Imperial government and to make an example of their leaders through execution. This persecution died with Valerian when he was executed as a prisoner of the Persian Sassanid Empire in 260. But the peace after Valerian’s death was not to last. Persecution was revived under the Emperor Diocletian beginning in 299. At first, Diocletian only targeted Christians in the military and government; however, in 303, he released the first of four edicts expanding and intensifying persecution to throughout the empire. Christians—especially clergy—were imprisoned or executed, Christian scriptures were confiscated and burnt, and church buildings, which were all relatively new, were destroyed. This “Great Persecution” continued even after Diocletian abdicated the imperial throne and retired from public life in 305, not fully coming to an end until Emperor Constantine’s Edit of Milan in 313.
At the northern edge of the empire, it seems that the persecution of Christians wasn’t pursued with as much zeal. However, there were some Christians persecuted to martyrdom in Roman Britannia. St Julius and St Aaron are two such martyrs associated with Caerleon in Wales; though, the details of their stories are now unknown. The Story of St Alban, on the other hand, has been preserved and passed down. Alban of Verulamium was a pagan, Roman citizen in Britannia who harbored a fugitive Christian clergyman during persecution. So impressed with the clergyman’s example and instruction, Alban offered himself in place of his recent guest when the soldiers came to search his home. The magistrate demanded Alban make sacrifice to the gods, but he refused, proclaiming his commitment to Christ alone as Lord and sealing his fate.
March 30, 2025
Part 11—An Ancient Church Building in Roman Britannia?
The “Great Persecution” begun by Emperor Diocletian in AD 299 didn’t just target Christians but also their material culture. By the end of the 3rd century, Christian communities had collections of books—some scrolls but mostly codices—of Scripture and other important texts. They had art, amulets, and likely special vessels used for the Eucharist. And at least some Christian communities had begun to build and meet in church buildings.
The oldest of these buildings recovered by archaeology was built about 232 in Dura-Europos, a Roman garrison town in Syria. This church was located near houses but also around temples to pagan gods, a Mithraeum, and a synagogue. It seems to have originally been built as a house that was then renovated and repurposed solely for church use about 8 years later. Like other Roman houses, the portico and rooms encircled an open courtyard. The largest room—created by combining the triclinium (dining room) with a smaller room—was where the congregation assembled for the liturgy of Holy Eucharist. Connected to that room in the back or west end of the structure was a smaller room probably used for the instruction of catechumens preparing for baptism who would be dismissed from the liturgy before the eucharistic prayer and holy communion. Another separate room in the northwestern corner of the house-turned-church contained what’s usually considered a baptismal font on the western wall but might have been a sarcophagus for the bones of a venerated martyr or saint. Whether a baptistry or a martyrium, this room, like the others, was adorned with frescoes inspired by scenes in the Old Testament and the Gospels.
This church was abandoned around 257 when the Persian Sassanid Empire took Dura-Europos from the Romans and exiled the population; hence, it avoided destruction during the “Great Persecution.” It’s unknown whether there were any such early churches in Roman Britannia. A plaque in the medieval church of St Peter Upon Cornhill, in an area of London that was part of Roman Londinium, boasted an ancient provenance. Unfortunately, the old church burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666 and was completely replaced by the new building constructed thereafter. Apart from that now lost plaque, there are no records of whether the church was built sometime after the “Great Persecution” or if it truly is as old as legend claims and survived the destruction wrought by Diocletian’s anti-Christian edicts.
April 6, 2025
Part 12—British Christianity at the end of the Great Persecution
In AD 313, the new Roman Augusti or Co-Emperors, Licinius and Constantine issued an edict ending all persecution of Christians and allowing them to assemble in church legally. The “Great Persecution” had died out in the western Empire after Diocletian abdicated the Imperial throne and retired from public life in 305. However, it continued in the eastern Empire until the eastern Emperor Galerius issued an Edict of Toleration in 311. Very shortly thereafter, Galerius died from disease and his successor, Emperor Maximinus Daza renewed the persecution in the eastern empire. With the Edict of Milan, the new eastern Emperor Licinius and the new western Emperor Constantine finally made it safe and legal to be Christian throughout the entire Roman Empire.
Constantine’s personal beliefs at the time of his accession are difficult to discern. His religious practice shows a commitment to some of the traditional pagan gods and traditions of Rome. On the other hand, he was also clearly interested in the Christian faith and acted as a patron of the Church—providing financial, material, and social support. As its patron, Emperor Constantine also seems to have considered it his duty and privilege to intervene in Church administration and politics to resolve conflicts and promote flourishing, as he deemed fit. For example, just a year and a half after the Edict of Milan, Constantine called a Synod in the city of Arles in Roman Gaul (modern France) to settle a dispute between a group of Christians who would later be called Donatists and the rest of the Church.
Three bishops from Roman Britannia are known to have attended the Synod of Arles in 314: Adelfius, Eborius, and Restitutus. Adelfius may have been the Bishop of Lindum Colonia, which is now the City of Lincoln. Eborius was the Bishop of Eboracum, now York. And Restitutus was the Bishop of Londinium, sometimes referred to as Roman London. This means that Britannia by the early 4th century had bishops located in the major cities with priests and deacons to assist them and probably some church buildings already in use while others were being built. From the first century when Nicodemus and Aristobulus may have first brought the faith to the British Isles through King Lucius’ attempt to cultivate Christianity there in the 2nd century and its survival in the 3rd century through the courage of martyrs like Julius, Aaron, and Alban; the Church had come to flourish in Roman Britannia as Christianity entered a new era of Imperial support.
April 27, 2025
Part 13—Bishops of Britannia attend the Synod of Arle
When the three Romano-British bishops—Adelfius of Lindum Colonia (Lincoln), Eborius of Eboracum (York), and Restitutus of Londinium (London)—left Roman Britannia in AD 314 for the Synod of Arles in Gaul, they were responding to the Western Roman Emperor Constantine’s call for help resolving a dispute in the Church. This disagreement arose because of the Great Persecution of Christians under Constatine’s predecessors. During the persecutions, some Christians not only abandoned the faith but also proved their apostasy by handing over copies of scripture scrolls and codices to be burnt and other “holy things” to be seized by the Empire. These Christians who betrayed the faith and handed over scriptures were known as traditores and even included clergy among their number.
The whole Church (or Church Catholic) tended to hold that these traditores who wished to return to the faith after the end of the persecutions could be reconciled to the Church through penance. Yet, debate raged over whether they could resume leadership roles. A rigorist faction of North African Christians believed that the apostasy of the traditores proved they never had true Christian faith to begin with; therefore, they would need to be baptized again (in addition to doing penance) if they wished to return to the Church. This group also insisted that the sacraments and sacramental rites performed by bishops and priests who became traditores were retroactively invalidated by their betrayal. Hence, anyone who had been baptized by one of these traditor clergy were never truly baptized and would need to be baptized again. Moreover, any clergy ordained by a traditor bishop was likewise not validly ordained and the baptisms they performed were similarly invalid.
Most bishops throughout the Church rejected the strict conclusions of this rigorist faction of the North African Church. But the issue came to a head in AD 311 when an archdeacon named Caecilianus, who was unpopular among the rigorist faction, was ordained as Bishop of Carthage. The rigorist faction alleged that one of the three bishops who ordained Caecilianus, Felix of Abthugni (in modern Tunisia), had been a traditor. Thus, they rejected the validity of Caecilianus’ ordination as Bishop of Carthage and ordained their own preferred candidate, a lector named Majorinus. The Church in North Africa was thereby split between the rigorist faction and the rest of the Church, most obviously in Carthage where two rival bishops claimed ecclesiastical jurisdiction and oversight.
May 4, 2025
Part 14—The Lead Up to the Synod of Arles
After issuing the Edict of Milan in AD 313, declaring tolerance for Christianity throughout the Empire, the Western Roman Emperor Constantine took an interest in resolving the conflict afflicting the Church in northern Africa. A substantial minority and several prominent bishops had broken away from the rest of the Church there because they felt the majority was too tolerant of sin and unfaithfulness by allowing former traditores too easily back into the Church after their apostasy and relinquishing of Scriptural scrolls and codices during the Great Persecution. This more rigorist faction had elected and ordained their own Bishop of Carthage, Majorinus after rejecting the ordination of Caecilianus as Bishop of Carthage on the grounds that one of the three bishops who ordained him—Felix, Bishop of Abthugni—had been a traditor.
Emperor Constantine delegated the mediation of the conflict to the Bishop of Rome, Pope Miltiades. The rigorist faction appealed to Constantine to have the matter judged by Bishops from Gaul, since Gaul and Britannia had suffered the least intense and shortest period of persecution and were therefore not compromised by traditores. Since Pope Miltiades was originally from northern Africa, the rigorist faction also feared he may be biased for the majority. So, Constantine had Reticius, Bishop of Autun; Maternus, Bishop of Cologne; and Marinus, Bishop of Arles travel to Rome to advise Pope Miltiades in the matter. The Bishop of Rome invited leaders from both the majority party and the minority, rigorist party to join him, the three Gallic bishops, and fifteen Italian bishops at the Lateran Palace in early October of 313 to reach a resolution.
The Bishop of Carthage chosen and ordained by the rigorist faction, Majorinus died before the Lateran Synod. Instead of letting the matter die with Majorinus, the breakaway, rigorist faction elected and ordained another alternative Bishop of Carthage, Donatus Magnus. With Donatus at their lead, the rigorist faction arrived in Rome to argue their case; however, they were frustrated to find that Pope Miltiades expected them adduce evidence and arguments to back up their accusations that Felix of Abthugni and Caecilianus had been traditores. Donatus and the rigorist faction saw this expectation as proof of Pope Miltiades’ bias and left the Synod before making their case. Consequently, the Lateran Synod decided in favor of Bishop Caecilianus and the majority. The rigorist faction rejected the ruling of the Lateran Synod and petitioned Emperor Constantine to call another Synod in Gaul and consisting only of Gallic and British bishops, which the Emperor did in AD 314.
May 11, 2025
Part 15—The British Bishops Oppose Donatism
When the rigorist faction of the North African Church chose Donatus of Casae Nigrae (Negrine in modern Algeria) to succeed Majorinus as their alternative Bishop of Carthage, the selection wasn’t just symbolic. Donatus became the acknowledged leader and primary spokesman for the rigorist faction. So much so, in fact, that the whole breakaway, rigorist faction came to be known as Donatists. Being identified by the name of their leader is an indication that they were seen as schismatics by the rest of the Church Catholic; however, that judgment wasn’t a foregone conclusion when the Synod of Arles was called to definitively adjudicate the matter.
The fact that the Donatists were able to prevail upon Emperor Constantine to call another synod after the Lateran Synod presided over by Pope Miltiades had already rendered judgment against them is a good reminder of the still circumscribed power of the Bishop of Rome in the 4th century. The Donatists argued that they could only receive fair treatment at a synod in Gaul since the Church in Roman Britannia and Gaul faced the shortest and least severe persecution in the prior decade and were therefore not known for having traditores in their ranks. So, Constantine instructed Marinus, Bishop of Arles to call a much larger synod in his city to set down a final judgment on the Donatist controversy.
Donatus and his retinue arrived in southern Gaul for the Synod of Arles in the summer of AD 314, surely hopeful that his rigorist faction and his episcopacy as Bishop of Carthage would be vindicated. The Synod, which included the three bishops from Britannia, did rule that proven traditores could no longer continue in or be restored to leadership in the Church. However, that largely undisputed point was the closest the Donatists came to any kind of success, for the Synod also declared that only an official, imperial document from the time of the persecution naming the alleged traditor as such could count as acceptable proof thereof. This meant that the episcopacy of Caecilianus as Bishop of Carthage was reaffirmed and the episcopacy of Donatus was rejected as invalid and in schism. More importantly, the Synod decreed that even if a priest or bishop were proven to have been a traditor, the sacraments and sacramental rites—particularly, baptisms and ordinations—performed by those traditor clergy would still be valid. This would prove to be the most important declaration of the Synod because it clarified that the efficacy of the sacraments was based upon God’s Word of Promise contained therein and the Grace communicated thereby rather than the personal faithfulness, theological orthodoxy, or moral rectitude of the clergy.
May 18, 2025
Part 16—The Church in Britannia Flourishes Under the Pax Romana
With the conclusion of the Synod of Arles, Bishops Restitutus, Eborius, and Adelfius presumably returned to their respective cities and churches in Roman Britannia. The sources pass into silence about these bishops and the Church in Britannia for the rest of the first half of the 4th century. Concerning this time, the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) only says that “the faithful Christians who in time of danger had hidden themselves in woods and deserts and secret caverns came out of hiding. They rebuilt the churches which had been razed to the ground; they endowed and built shrines to the holy martyrs. Everywhere, they displayed them as tokens of victory, celebrating festal days and performing their sacred rites with pure hearts and voice.”
Since the Edict of Milan in AD 313, the Christians of Britannia and throughout the Empire were able to build publicly recognizable church buildings. One might say that for the first time in its history, Christianity was able to enter the religious marketplace without fear or disadvantage. The Edict of Milan hadn’t favored Christianity over paganism, Judaism, or any of the other religious and philosophical traditions, communities, and institutions in the Empire. Rather, it was more of a guarantee of toleration and religious freedom for (nearly) all traditions, including Christianity. But just this basic, official toleration allowed the Church to flourish in a still majority pagan Empire.
The Church was also assisted in its growth by the patronage of Constantine. Even as he continued to support some pagan temples, the Western Roman Emperor had also emerged as the primary benefactor of the Church. He paid for churches to be built and furnished both in the holy land as pilgrimage sites and throughout the Empire. He also financed the copying of books of the Old Testament (Septuagint) and the New Testament; albeit, a consensus on the exact canon of the New Testament had not yet been reached at the time. He empowered bishops to take on the duties of magistrates in some circumstances. And, as with the Donatist controversy, Constantine also took an active role in helping the Church resolve disputes and adjudicate competing claims of legitimacy. This would become especially important when the teachings of priest named Arius clashed with those of his bishop, Alexander of Alexandria, igniting a debate throughout the whole Church.
May 25, 2025
Part 17—A Church Controversy Brewing Far From Britannia
Although Britannia was among the first of the provinces to recognize Constantine’s imperial claim, it always remained on the periphery of the Empire, both geographically and in terms of importance. Similarly, despite the role of the three British Bishops in the Donatist controversy, the Church in Britannia remained more of a missionary frontier than a hub of Christianity. The most important cities for the Church were around the Mediterranean—Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria.
Jerusalem retained significance for being both the place Christ was crucified and raised and the birthplace of the Church. Rome’s importance was based on being the capital of the Empire and the city where both St Peter and St Paul had been martyred. Syrian Antioch could also claim Petrine patronage as St Peter had overseen the Church there before he went on to Rome, and an influential Catechetical School had developed there. Finally, as the great intellectual and academic center of the Roman Empire, Alexandria in Egypt became the home of the other great Catechetical School of the Church.
This Catechetical School could boast some of the Church’s greatest minds of the 2nd and 3rd centuries on its roster of teachers and students, such as St Athenagoras of Athens, St Pantænus the Philosopher, St Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. It stood amid the other famous schools of Alexandria, like the pagan Musaeum and Serapeum. The best thinkers among pagans, Jews, and Christians met, mingled, and debated in the Alexandrian marketplace of ideas. They discussed music, poetry, politics, ethics, the natural world, and the nature of divinity. It was into this milieu in AD 313 that Arius—a tall, soft-spoken priest of a church in Alexandria—began to preach and teach on a question that had only begun to be addressed by the bishops and theologians of the Patristic Era of the Church. That question was, how can Christians claim to believe in one God but still teach and worship Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God? What exactly is the metaphysical relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ (and the Holy Spirit)?
June 1, 2025
Part 18—The Source of Trinitarian Language
By the time Arius began teaching and preaching in AD 313, the Church hadn’t yet articulated the nature of the metaphysical relationships between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with the same depth and nuance as they would later that century. Still, the language of their faith and worship was certainly trinitarian. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch from c. 169 to c. 183, first referred to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as “trinity” (trias/triados, in Greek) in an apologetic work written during his episcopate. A generation later, the lay theologian of Carthage in northern Africa, Tertullian wrote in a Latin text of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a trinitas. So, by the 2nd to 3rd centuries, the word “trinity” was already starting to become a shorthand used by Christians for the threefold divinity in which they placed their faith.
The word “trinity” may have taken some time to be coined, but the language it summarizes goes back to Scripture, itself. According to the gospels, God the Father calls Jesus His Son (Mk 1:11; Mt 3:17; Lk 3:22), Jesus addresses God as Father (Mk 11:25, 14:36; Mt 6:9; Lk 11:2; Jn 17:1), and Jesus identifies himself as the Son who uniquely reveals the Father (Mt 11:27; Lk 10:22; Jn 15:15). Moreover, they record the Father sending the Holy Spirit to be imparted by Jesus on his disciples (Jn 20:22; Lk 24:49). And the Pauline Letters, the Epistles of John, and the Book of Hebrews all reflect further upon the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in relationship to God the Father.
Indeed, almost from the beginning, Christians began to see the divinity of Father, Son, and Spirit revealed in the very warp and woof of all Scripture, even the Old Testament. When Theophilus of Antioch first spoke of the trinity in the 2nd century, he wasn’t writing about any of the books of the New Testament but about the Book of Genesis. He suggested that the first three days of creation in Genesis 1 are a trace or sign of the trinity—each day in order representing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, respectively. And yet, for all the faith early Christians had in the scriptural witness to the divinity of Jesus and the Spirit along with God the Father and all their confident use of the trinitarian language bequeathed to them thereby, very few had even tentatively begun to explore the nature of the trifold Godhead’s unity by the beginning of the 4th century.
Videos from past Adult Forum series
Being Christian in a Secular Age
The Summer 2021 Adult Christian Education Program is an exploration of Discipleship amid Secularism.
I
Mapping the Secular
II
Stories of the Secular
III
Our-narrating the Secular Stories
IV
Dispelling Disenchantment
V
Glimpses of Transcendence
How Did We Get the New Testament?
The Fall 2020 Adult Christian Education Program is a survey of the New Testament.
I
The New Testament and Its World
II
Oral Tradition and First Writings
III
Paul and the Undisputed Letters
IV
The Disputed Letters of Paul
V
The Catholic Epistles: James, Jude, and I & II Peter
VI
The Gospel according to Mark
VII
The Q Source and the Didache
VIII
The Gospel according to Matthew
IX
Luke-Acts
X
The Gospel & Epistles of John
Religions of the World
The 2019-2020 Adult Christian Education Program is a study of the Religions of the World.
Video Recordings of that study can be found below.
HINDUISM
Hinduism—Part 1
Hinduism—Part 2
Hinduism—Part 3
Hinduism—Part 4
Hinduism—Part 5
Hinduism—Part 6
Interlude:
JAINISM
BUDDHISM
Buddhism—Part 1
Buddhism—Part 2
Buddhism—Part 3
Buddhism—Part 4
Buddhism—Part 5
Buddhism—Part 6
Buddhism—Part 7
Buddhism—Part 8
Buddhism—Part 9
Buddhism—Part 10
Interlude:
CONFUCIANISM & TAOISM
ISLAM
Islam—Part 1
Islam—Part 2
Islam—Part 3
500 Years of Reformation
In 2017, the Fork Church joined other Episcopal and Lutheran Churches in Hanover, VA in commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation with a lecture series.
The videos for three of those lectures can be found here.
David Holmes
“High Church, Low Church: Virginia Churchmanship and the Reformation”
Bob Pritchard
“What Luther Taught Us: Martin Luther’s Influence on the English Reformation”