Mertcan Bulak
@MBulak
1181 okur puanı
Ağustos 2020 tarihinde katıldı
Şu anda okuduğu kitap
The Orthodox believer who enters a church to attend services, for example, goes first to the iconostasis, the wall of paintings that separates the sanctuary from the nave. There he kisses the icons before taking his place in the congregation. A guest who enters an Orthodox home finds an icon hanging in the eastern corner of the living room and bedroom. If he is an Orthodox believer, he will, upon entering a room, greet the icons first by crossing himself and bowing. Only then will he greet his host. An Orthodox believer considers these images of Jesus and the saints not the works of a human artist but as manifestations of the heavenly ideal. They are a kind of window between the earthly and the celestial worlds.
At the end of March 455, Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, set sail with a hundred ships manned by Carthaginian sailors. His army landed north of the Tiber, creating panic in Rome. Rumors swirled about that Gaiseric intended to burn the city. Many tried to flee. The imperial troops mutinied. While attempting to escape, Emperor Maximus was slain by one of his own bodyguards. His body was dragged through the streets, torn to pieces, and thrown in the river. No general took over the defense; the troops were disorganized. On June 2, 455, the Vandals entered Rome, meeting no resistance.
The more that religion and politics became intertwined in the East, the less independent became the patriarch of the capital. In Rome the conditions were markedly different. The weakness of the Roman Empire in the West led to a growing independence of the bishop of Rome, the patriarch of the West. The pope had no strong rival. Deprived of the old argument of primacy based on Rome the imperial city, the bishops of Old Rome relied more heavily on an argument from Scripture and tradition, the primacy of Peter.
The term pope itself is not crucial in the emergence of the doctrine of papal primacy. The title papa originally expressed the fatherly care of any and every bishop for his flock. It began to be reserved for the bishop of Rome only in the sixth century, long after the claim of primacy.
Long before the arrival of the delegation from Rome, Attila had probably made up his mind about further military thrusts. Epidemics in his army along with widespread famine were forcing him to break off the advance. But nobody knew it. So he willingly granted an interview to the imperial envoy, and in the course of it, he granted the bishop’s plea that the capital be spared. He even promised to withdraw from Italy, and he kept his word. The bishop of Rome had assumed a new role and staked a fresh claim on the future.