An epoch, or era, is a fixed point of time, commonly selected on account of some remarkable event by which it has been distinguished, and which is made the beginning or determining point of a particular year from which all other years, whether preceding or ensuing, are computed. In the Christian countries, the creation and the birth of Christ are the most important of the historical epochs. The creation has formed the foundation of various chronologies, the chief of which are: 1. The epoch adopted by Bossuet, Ussher, and other Catholic and Protestant divines, which places the creation in 4004 BC. 2. The Era of Constantinople (adopted by Russia), which places it in 5508 BC. 3. The Era of Antioch, used until 284 AD, placed the creation 5502 BC. 4. The Era of Aexandria, which made the creation 5492 BC. This is also the Abyssinian Era. 5. The Jewish Era, which places the creation in 3760 BC.
The Greeks computed their time by periods of four years, called Olympiads, from the occurrence every fourth year of the Olympic games. The first Olympiad, being the year in which Coroebus was victor in the Olympic games, was in the year 776 BC.
The Romans dated from the supposed era of the foundation of their city (Ab Urbe Condita, A.U.C.), the 21st of April, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad, or 753 BC (according to some authorities 752 BC).
The Christian Era, or mode of computing from the birth of Christ as a starting-point, was first introduced in the 6th century, and was generally adopted by the year 1000. This event is believed to have taken place earlier, perhaps by four years, than the received date.
The Julian epoch, based on the coincidence of the solar, lunar, and indictional periods, is fixed at 4713 BC, and is the only epoch established on an astronomical basis.
The Mohammedan Era, or Hejira, commences on the 16th of July, 622, and the years are computed by lunar months.
The Chinese traditionally reckoned their time by cycles of 60 years. Instead of numbering them as we do, they traditionally gave a different name to every year in the cycle. Research Epoch
The Evangelical Harmony, or Harmony of the Gospels, were the title of works written with a view to prove the substantial agreement of the four evangelists. The hereticTatian composed in the second century the Diatessaron, the first work of this kind, a continuous narrative of the events written in the gospels. From this harmony all passages were omitted which favoured the doctrine of the real humanity of Christ, and hence told against the peculiar doctrines of Tatian. Theophilus of Antioch is said to have composed a book of a similar kind, and Ammonius Saccas executed another Diatessaron, with the corresponding passages arranged in parallel columns. The Ten Indexes of Eusebius probably appeared in the first half of the fourth century, and was more complete than its predecessors. Research Evangelical Harmony
In the first ages of Christianity numerous churches were founded by the apostles and their successors in Greek-speaking countries; in Greece itself, in Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedonia. These were subsequently called Greek, in contradistinction to the churches, in which the Latintongue prevailed. The removal of the seat of empire by Constantine to Constantinople (Istanbul), and the subsequent separation of the eastern and western empires afforded the opportunity for diversities of language, modes of thinking, and customs to manifest themselves, and added political causes to the grounds of separation. During the earliest period the chief seats of influence in the Eastern Church were Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, the seat of that mystical philosophy, by which the orientalchurch was distinguished. In 341, soon after the synod of Antioch, the rivalry between the Bishop of -Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople began to assume importance, and before 400 differences of doctrine with respect to the procession of the Holy Spirit appeared. The council of Chalcedon in 451 accorded to the eastern bishop the same honours and privileges in his own diocese as those of the Bishop of Rome, and in 484 each bishop excommunicated the other.
The title of (Ecumenical Patriarch was assumed by John, Bishop of Constantinople, in 588, and in the following year the phrase 'Filioque' ('and the Son') was added by the Latins to the Nicene creed (which now read 'proceeding from the father and the son'), an addition to which the Greek Church was opposed.
In 648 PopeTheodore deposed Patriarch Paul II; but a reconciliation of the churches was effected at the Council of Rome in 680. The doctrines of the Greek Church were defined by John Damascenus in 730. The disruption was hastened by the banishment of Ignatius by Michael the Drunken and the consecration of Photius in 858. The PopeNicholas I and Photius excommunicated each other in 867. The schism was temporarily healed after the death of Photius, but Michael Cerularius reopened it by charging the Latins with heterodoxy. He was excommunicated by Leo IX in 1054, and in turn excommunicated the pope in the same year, since which the Greeks have been severed from the Roman communion, though the Russo-Greek Church was not separated until the 12th century.
The presence of the Crusaders in the East aggravated the quarrel; Latin patriarchates were established in Antioch and Jerusalem, and, though on the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders a Latin patriarchate was set up there in 1204, the schism was revived there as soon as the Latinempire fell in 1262. .Reunion was proposed in 1273 by Patriarch Joseph, and effected, with the acknowledgment of the pope as primate, at the council of Lyons in 1274. The union, however, was annulled in 1282 by Emperor Andronicus II, and in 1283 and 1285 by synods of Constantinople. It was again effected under John Palasologus at Florence in 1439, but was repudiated in 1443 by the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
In 1453, when the patriarch fled from the Turks, a schismatic Gregory Scholarius was chosen in his place. In 1575 unsuccessful negotiations were commenced with a view to union with the Lutherans, and in 1723 the English bishops even proposed that the Greek and Anglican churches should unite, a proposal revived by the Archbishop of Moscow in 1866. The claims of the czar in 1853 to the protectorate of the Greek churches in Turkey was one of the causes of the Crimean War.
The Greek Church is the only church which holds that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only; the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches deriving the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. Like the Roman Catholic Church it has seven sacraments - baptism; chrism; penance, preceded by confession; the eucharisfc; ordination;
marriage; and unction. Research Greek Church
A homily is a discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience on some subject of religion; a discourse pronounced in the church by the minister to the congregation.
The ancient homily was sometimes simply a conversation, the prelate talking to the people and interrogating them, and they in turn talking to and interrogating him. In modern use a homily differs but little from an ordinary sermon, the idea of simplicity, however, being always attached to it.
The earliest existing examples of the homily are those of Origen in the 3rd century. In the schools of Alexandria and Antioch this form of discourse was sedulously cultivated, and Clement of Alexandria, St Dionysius, and Gregory Thaumaturgus are among the names most eminent in this department. It was in later centuries, however, and in the hands of Atlianasius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Cyril of Alexandria, and especially of Chrysostom that the homily reached its highest excellence. Augustine and Gregory the Great were among the western composers of homilies.
In the Church of England, after the Reformation, two official books of homilies were issued. These were called The First and Second Books of Homilies, and the former, ascribed to Thomas Cranmer, appeared in 1547; the latter, said to be by Jewell, in 1563. They were originally meant to be read by those of the inferior clergy who were not qualified to compose discourses themselves. Research Homily
Ammianus Marcellimis was a Roman historian. He was born about 320 at Antioch in Syria and died about 390. He wrote in thirty-one books (of which the first thirteen are lost) a history of the Caesars, from Nerva to Valens, which was highly thought of by Gibbon for its fidelity. Research Ammianus Marcellimis
The Apollinarians were a sect of Christians who maintained the doctrine that the Logos (the Word) holds in Christ the place of the rational soul, and consequently that God was united in him with the human body and the sensitive soul Apollinaris, the author of this opinion, was, from 362 until at least 382, Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, and a zealous opposer of the Arians. As a man and a scholar he was highly esteemed, and was among the most popular authors of his time. He formed a congregation of his adherents at Antioch, and made Yitalis their bishop. The Apollinarians, or Vitalians, as their followers were called, soon spread their sentiments in Syria and the neighbouring countries, established several societies, with their own bishops, and one even in Istanbul but the sect was suppressed in 428 by imperial edict. Research Apollinarians
Bishop is the highest of the three orders in the Christian ministry - bishops, priests, and deacons - in such churches as recognize three grades. The name is derived from the Greek episkopos, meaning literally an overseer, through the Anglo-Saxon biscop, bisceop. Originally in the Christian church, the name was used interchangeably with presbyter or elder for the overseer or pastor of a congregation; but at a comparatively early period a position of special authority was held by the pastors of the Christian communities belonging to certain places, and the name of bishop became limited to these by way of distinction.
There is much that is doubtful or disputed in regard to the history of the episcopal office. Roman Catholics and many others hold that it is of divine ordination and existed already in apostolic times; and they maintain the doctrine of the apostolical succession, that is to say, the doctrine of the transmission of the ministerial authority in uninterrupted succession from Christ to the apostles, and through these from one bishop to another. Presbyterians deny that the office was of divine or apostolic origin, and hold that it was an upgrowth of subsequent times easily accounted for, certain of the presbyters or pastors acquiring precedence as bishops over others, just as the bishops of the chief cities (Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome) obtained precedence among the bishops and received the title of metropolitan bishops; while the Bishop of Rome came to be regarded as the head of the church and the true successor of Peter.
Already in the fifth century the popes had begun to send to the newly-elected metropolitan bishops (now called archbishops) the pallium, a kind of official mantle, as a token of their sanction of the choice. Two centuries later it became the custom to consecrate bishops by investing them with the ring and crosier, the former as a token of marriage with the church, the latter as a symbol of the pastoral office. This investiture, as giving validity to the election of the bishops, became the source of long-continued contests between the popes and the temporal sovereigns in the middle ages. In the Roman Catholic Church the bishop is usually elected by the presbyters of the diocese, subject to the approbation of the pope and of the secular power. When the monarch is Roman Catholic a bishopric may be in the royal gift, subject to papal approval.
The bishop comes next in rank to the cardinal. His special insignia are the mitre and crosier or pastoral staff, a gold ring, the pallium, dalmatica, etc. He guards the purity of doctrine in his diocese, appoints professors in the clerical colleges, licenses books on religious subjects, ordains and appoints the clergy, consecrates churches, takes charge of the management of funds for ecclesiastical or pious purposes, etc. The bishops of the Greek Church have similar functions but on the whole less authority. They are always selected from the monastic orders.
In the Church of England bishops are nominated by the sovereign, who, upon request of the dean and chapter for leave to elect a bishop, sends a conge d'elire, or license to elect, with a letter missive, nominating the person whom he would have chosen. The election, by the chapter, must be made within twelve days, or the sovereign has a right to appoint whom he pleases. A bishop, as well as an archbishop, has his consistory court to hear ecclesiastical causes, and makes visits to the clergy, etc. He consecrates churches, ordains, admits, and institutes priests; confirms, suspends, excommunicates, grants licenses for marriage, etc. He has his archdeacon, dean, and chapter, chancellor, and vicar-general to assist him.
Bohemond I was prince of Antioch. He was born in 1056 and died in 1111. He was the eldest son of Robert Guiscard, under whom he served with distinction in the war against Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Byzantium. He took a distinguished part in the first crusade and captured Antioch in 1098 of which he became prince, but was himself captured by the Turks in 1100 and imprisoned for three years. He married a daughter of Philip of France, and with a French army renewed unsuccessfully the war against Alexius. Research Bohemond I
Chosroes I (Chosroes the Just) was the greatest of the Sassanid kings of Persia. He reigned from 531 until 579. At his accession Persia was involved in a war with the Emperor Justinian, which Chosroes I terminated successfully, obliging Justinian to purchase peace by the payment of a large sum of money. In 540, however, jealous of the victories of Belisarius, the great general of the empire, Constantine violated the peace, invaded Syria, laid Antioch in ashes, and returned home laden with spoils. The war continued until 562, when the emperor again purchased peace by an annual tribute of 30000 pieces of gold. The peace continued for ten years, when the war was renewed with Justin, the successor of Justinian, when Chosroes I was again successful. The following emperor, Tiberius, at length completely defeated the Persians in 578. Research Chosroes I
Godfrey of Bouillon was the leader of the first crusade. He was born in 1061 near Nivelles and died in 1100. The son of Eustace II, count of Boulogne, he distinguished himself while fighting for the Emperor Henry IV in Germany and Italy, and was made Duke of Bouillon. In order to expiate his sin of fighting against the pope, he took the cross for the Holy Land in 1095, and led 80,000 men to the East by way of Constantinople (Istanbul). On the 1st of May, 1097, they crossed the Bosporus, and began their march on Nice (Nicaea), which they took in June. In July the way to Syria was opened by the victory of Dorylgeum (Eski Shehr), in Phrygia, and before the end of 1097 the crusaders encamped before Antioch. The town of Antioch fell into their hands in 1098, and in the following year Godfrey took Jerusalem itself, after a five weeks' siege. The leaders of the army elected him king of the city and the territory; but Godfrey would not wear the crown and contented himself with the title of duke and guardian of the holy sepulchre. The defeat of the Egyptians at Ascalon placed him in possession of all the Holy Land, excepting two or three places. Godfrey now turned his attention to the organization of his newly-established government, and promulgated a code of feudal laws called the Assize of Jerusalem. Godfrey was a favourite subject of mediaeval poetry, and is the central figure of Tasso's 'Jerusalem Delivered.' Research Godfrey of Bouillon
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Epoch
